SS Vault
by Marshal Yenom
Summary: the start of random story ideas. Only 1-2 chapters per. You can take and use any of the ideas written, however I do claim the right to make my own version of whatever I put in here. Suggestions welcome, and all that.
1. A Gaming Demigod

A Gaming Demigod

I can think of a lot of people who would love to be in the position I am now. Dropped into one of my favorite series by one of, if not the, biggest trolls in anime. Not many of them would think about how deadly it could be. Painfully deadly. Aw well, at least I wont be easy to kill!

Chapter 1

 _'What's that?'_ He was surrounded by darkness on all sides. Strangely, he wasn't feeling uncomfortable. He felt safe, like in the embrace of his mother.

After a long time, mensurable due to the darkness that surrounded him, the walls started to move. He could see light! He started squirming to get out. When he did, he saw giant faces looming over him, along with a blue screen floating above his head. He was handed to a woman on a bed, the screen following him all the time.

"He's a boy," was said to the woman holding him.

"Welcome to the world, James Greenwood," she smiled at him.

He ignored all of them, instead crying after reading the screen above him.

 **James Greenwood, (No Title)**

 **Race- Human (Demigod, son of Athena)**

 **Level-1 (0/200)**

 **Age-30 seconds**

 **HP-40/40**

 **MP-100/100 (control-10%)**

 **SP-25/25**

 **STR-2**

 **VIT-2**

 **DEX-2**

 **END-2**

 **INT-10**

 **WIS-9**

 **LUC- (-5)**

 **Stat Points- 5**

 **Skill Points-0**

 **Money-$0**

 **Description- A ordinary guy, thrown into the Percy Jackson world by Zelretch for his own amusement, just before he would have been immolated in his own and given the gamer to see what would happen. Unlike the rest of his half siblings, he is not a 'brain child', instead having the DNA of his parents added to a shell that was grown inside of his human mother, due to complications that would not have allowed her to have a child normally. Due to his godly blood he has higher physical stats for a normal baby, and his past life along with his godly parent gave him the average mental stats of an adult. He retains the the bad luck of being a demigod. Have fun with that.**

 _'Well, shit,'_ was the elegant thought of the new James.

XXXXX

Growing up was oddly boring. Being a baby you couldn't really move all that much, not until you built up the muscles anyway. I think I gave my parents a heart attack when I started walking after about one year though. That's another thing, I had the same parents and name as last time through. Anyway, preschool was pretty boring, considering I had the mind of an adult in the body of a toddler. Those memories were quickly suppressed. I quickly flew through school, again as a result of going through highschool and part of college previously. I personally think that was the only reason I was accepted each time I was expelled. Thus, I was halfway through highschool at the age of eleven. Hmm, I might be underestimating my intelligence. My stats as they are now stand proud among the levels of great adults.

 **James Greenwood, (No Title)**

 **Race- Human (Demigod, son of Athena)**

 **Level- 20 (10,362/17,540)**

 **Age-11**

 **HP-630/630**

 **MP-20,570/20,570 (Control- Master-23%)**

 **SP-700/700**

 **Mana Regeneration- 750 points per/s**

 **STR-15**

 **VIT-16**

 **DEX-14**

 **END-17**

 **INT-23**

 **WIS-21**

 **LUC- (-5)**

 **Description- Originally an ordinary guy, thrown into the Percy Jackson world by Zelretch for his own amusement, just before he would have been immolated in his own and given the gamer to see what would happen. Unlike the rest of his half siblings, he is not a 'brain child', instead having the DNA of his parents added to a shell that was grown inside of his human mother, due to complications that would not have allowed her to have a child normally. Due to his godly blood he has higher physical stats for a normal baby, and his past life along with his godly parent gave him the average mental stats of an adult. He retains the the bad luck of being a demigod. Have fun with that.**

Yeah, all my stats were absurd, especially for my age. The average adult was around level sixteen, with stats around level thirteen. My stats were closer to those of highly athletic adults, like those that would participate in the Olympics. On the other hand, I was closer to a strong half-blood on the mythological side of things. That also meant, as my luck would have it, I would be going to camp by the end of the school year, seeing as how the stronger monsters were attracted to me. Apparently my mom was clear sighted, and told my dad about my circumstances as far as she knew them. He wasn't happy about it, but he understood.

I had trained in martial arts and weaponry since I had started expressing an interest in them, so I wouldn't be totally helpless if need be. Also, magic! I don't know if it's just me, but any magic system I can understand, I can replicate to varying degrees of effectiveness. That meant I could utilize the elements, tracing and reinforcement from fate, along with a few other things, including the magic system from DXD that I had seen last time through and teleportation. I tended to use a version of the Alamut guard's bladed staff, although altered to help with my magic, when fighting against the monsters, but I could still you a sword even if it isn't my preferred weapon.

I think I went a little overboard with magic though, seeing as one of my spells, a kind-of chain lighting with the holy element added for kicks, absolutely shreds the weaker monsters, like hell hounds, and still works quite well on some of the stronger ones. Add to that it only takes four hundred mana without the staff, and the holy element itself makes the spell around 5 times stronger against most monsters than without. Although it isn't that surprising considering that was all I could train for the first six years of my life. It was odd enough for others to see a kid around six or seven to train physically, imagine a four year old! That didn't mean I wasn't still training with my magic then, but I didn't focus so much on it. The magic rankings went from Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Master, Arch-Mage, then Grand Master-Arch mage. Either way, it was time for sleep. I get the feeling something is going to happen tomorrow, and something bad.

XXXXX

I was right! The _FUCKING NEMEAN LION_ came and killed my parents! I was so distraught over that I shoved half my mana reserves into a single, extremely powerful bolt of holy lightning that I sent strait threw its eye, along its optical nerves and melting it's brain instantly. The satyr that had been assigned to my school found me crying over the half eaten remains of parents, before I blacked out. Normally, the skill that comes with being the gamer, and I might as well tell you the other skills as well, the ones I use most.-

 **Gamer's Mind LV-MAX**

 **Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind, immune to psychological status and effects.**

 **Gamer's Body LV-MAX**

 **Grants the user a body that allows the user to live the real world according to the status he possess.**

 **Martial Arts LV- 17 (82%) Apprentice**

 **Your skill in fighting without a weapon. Mostly useless against monsters at this point.**

 **Staff Fighting LV- 18 (36%) Journeyman**

 **Your skill in using a staff as a weapon. Useless to try and kill monsters without a blade of celestial bronze.**

 **Cleaning LV-MAX**

 **Your ability to keep a space clean. Congratulations, you have maxed out your housewife skills.**

 **Cooking LV-MAX**

 **Your ability to make food and keep from burning water. Congratulations, you have maxed out your housewife skills.**

 **Magic channeling LV-MAX**

 **Your ability in channeling magic through weaponry in order to focus and strengthen your spells and active an objects effects. Not to be confused with Reinforcement.**

 **Reinforcement LV-28 (67%)**

 **Your ability to channel your magic through objects and yourself to strengthen them and increase theirs' and your abilitys. Not to be confused with Magic Channeling**

\- Gamer's mind would done something about it before then, but I had just watched my parents get killed by the Nemean Lion, and I was exhausted from the entire ordeal and using half my mana all at once. When I woke up, we was at camp. Hundreds of miles away. At camp. I think I know how they felt in the Lost Hero after coming from the grand canyon. On the other hand, canon will be starting in about two years, unless you go by the movies, in which case jump into Tartarus and get eaten by his face. Anyway, it will all start in about two years, because everyone was, obviously, two years younger than described. That leaves me two years to train, because if Zelretch wants to be amused he will almost certainly drag me along with the other questers. So, time-skip!

XXXXX

Dungeons are awesome! Unlike some of the gamer stories I've read, time doesn't stop when you're inside of them. Instead, it's just speed up 12:1, meaning for every 12 hours inside, it's about 1 out. I managed to level up three time, yay for spending an entire day, dungeon time so about four hours outside, fighting monsters! And, I didn't need to stop to sleep or eat, so I could use the entire day to kill things. It also helped with burning off the anger from my parents deaths. Apparently you can still hear certain sounds from outside the ID, like the dinner horn. I also earned a title for killing the last of 150 beast-like monsters.

 **James Greenwood, (No Title)**

 **Race- Human (Demigod, son of Athena)**

 **LV- 23 (7,042/24,890)**

 **Title gained!**

 **Beastslayer- +25% damage done to every beast-like monster.**

The smile on my face was one of unholy, sadistic glee as I changed my title. I wonder if using holy lightning had that effect on everyone, or if it was just a hidden part of my personality, before discarding the thought as unimportant, and blasted another hell hound. Apparently, beast-like monsters were described as one that looked like any animal that exists for normal people, like for example the hell hound I killed less than a minute ago. They are similar enough to normal dogs they take the extra damage, however things like drakes, lamias' and the gorgons along with quite a few other kinds of monsters wouldn't take the extra damage.

Regardless, when I exited the ID, I did so at the end of the Hermes line, about a minute before we all sat down. Only a few of them were confused on who I was and how I got there. Those were the ones who noticed I hadn't been there before, and were confused over how I just appeared behind them. I just waved them off.

"Now," Chiron started, "Before we eat, we have a new demigod to introduce" He started looking around, but couldn't see me. "Where is James Greenwood?" I stood up, waved to him, had my mom's symbol glow above my head, and walked over to my new table. Everyone was quite confused over my appearance, after all, my eyes and hair weren't the same as the rest of my half siblings. My hair was a dark, dark black, but it's my eyes that everyone was looking at. The pupils were a dark gray, and the colored part itself wasn't gray like the rest of my siblings, instead being three rings total, one of each light blue, emerald green, and a light purple that seems to grow darker each time I use the holy lightning spell, the differences probably due to how I was born. The emerald from my father, and the light blue from my human mother, although I don't know where the purple came from.

After that, we all burned a portion of our food for each of our respective parents and started eating. I was asked questions of all sorts, and answered what I could and didn't think too invasive. Certain things I wasn't able to answer-

 **Cannon Cap**

 **The inbuilt restriction placed upon a Chosen of Chaos to stop them from revealing their past life and future knowledge of what might or might not occur. Also stops most others from realizing what they are. Can be overridden if a CoC is pushed far enough to say basically _fuck cannon_ and draws on the power of their sponsor, Chaos, to completely obliterate whatever poor schmuck that decided to anger one who brings chaos by existing. Basically the CoC version of a Deus EX Machina to stop end of the world scenarios that they could not normally. That does not mean they can't be killed though, they aren't invincible, but it's difficult to the point of just being easier to avoid them, and shear desperation to continue living can trigger their 'Bringer of Chaos' thing.**

\- but luckily they knew when not to push. Soon enough it was time for bed, and so ended my first day of Camp.

XXXXX

The next week saw me starting the day, getting breakfast, training whether with everyone else or just in one of my ID's, in which I learned I was reasonably good with archery even if I was nowhere near as good as some of those in the Apollo cabin, get lunch, continue training until dinner, after which we either had a campfire or one the different games they had for us to play. Repeat day in and day out for the next two years, with me killing a lot of monsters in ID's, I think I might have gotten the highest kill count of monsters of any hero in their mortal lives, until Percy Jackson himself along with Grover in toe finally arrive.

 **XXXXX**

 **There we go, that's were I'm going to end. Sorry about the lack of anything interesting in this chapter, but what was I going to do? I don't know how to write fight scenes, although I will try, I needed to put something to start out with, and there wasn't much conversation because, do you really want to listen to the conversations of six year olds? Also, can any of you guess what I'm going to be doing with him? I have a few hints throughout the chapter, but I don't think I made it that obvious. OK, I have no idea what I am doing with this. It was just an amusing idea I had after finishing the latest chapter of a similar story. I have no idea how, or even if, I will continue the story, but it is what it is. Also, I needed a way for the character for the character to get into the world, and I didn't feel right just having them appear in the world, but that does not mean it will be a triple crossover. At least, not with that anime. I just found it more amusing to do it this way. Also, the cannon cap thing. Before any of you complain, yes it was influenced greatly by the Outsiders Chronicles thing from Dis Lexic, and the Chaos I'm using will not be the primordial from Greek mythology, instead being another name for the main character of a story I have since taken down because I couldn't stand reading it myself, and I couldn't understand what was going through my mind when I wrote it. Back to what I was saying, I will change the cannon cap thing if asked by Dis Lexic, but not any of the ones who will read this story. It's his and I'm just borrowing it, seeing as how I have ideas that will require some reason for them not to just shout out/ get tortured out/ mind read/ discovered they have future knowledge and what they are. The preserving cannon thing works well enough for their actions, but I prefer a solid reason some people can't just pull it from their minds or something.**


	2. Pink Strings

Pink Strings

There were a lot of things I expected after I died. Getting reincarnated into a world with crazy s-ranked ninja, giant energy mongers that can destroy a village in one attack and a few people who believe themselves gods, as the twin brother of arguably the worst Kunoichi to exist wasn't one of them. All I have to do is stay out of the academy and I'll be fine, right? Now, let's see if I can take one of the most overlooked mechanic and make it broken.

 **Yes, this will be strange. It won't be a crack fic, but I am taking influence from a story I found and liked. It will turn out different than that one, don't worry. I'm also going to be doing something I tried searching for, but couldn't find.** **Let's** **see what I can add to this community. Also, no Gamer this time. It can be enjoyable, but it does get boring after a while.**

Chapter 1 

You know, there are several things about dying that I never wanted to know. To start with, its bloody uncomfortable. Of course, being reborn is even more uncomfortable. I don't know how, nor do I want to. I won't bore you with the first six years of my life, let's just say there's a very good reason you don't remember what happens as a baby and leave it at that. Of course, there were several instances when I wanted to bash my head into a wall, most notably when I found out my twin sister was Sakura Haruno. Yes, I was reincarnated into the world of Naruto as the twin of Sakura. Incidentally, neither of our parent's look like they did in cannon. Our mother looks exactly like what Sakura will at the end of cannon. On the other hand, I am pretty much a carbon copy of our father, who also looks rather feminine, but with short black hair and golden eyes… for whatever reason.

XXXXX

Originally, I hadn't planned to enter the academy, however it was impossible to argue with my dieter when she wanted something badly enough. I won't quit now that I've started, and I decided that I might as well try to do as much as I can to change the world for the better. I don't know if anything about the academy changed, but in this version, it starts at six and students graduate at twelve. It's embarrassing, but it took me two years to remember about chakra. As soon as I did, I started on the exercises I could remember. That amounted to leaf sticking, tree climbing and water walking. It didn't talk me long to complete all of them, three months in total. That was mostly due to me trying without a teacher and making sure I could stay on if I was fighting on the surface. I wasn't as good as a fully trained Shinobi, but I was better than most genin.

I'm just as smart as my sister, however I applied myself differently than she does. While we both had almost photographic memories, she only read enough to pass a bit above as the top Kunoichi, and didn't train. I read ahead; theory, history, math and much more, I read whatever I could and trained whenever I had free time, that being whenever I wasn't eating, pulled into playing, in the academy, or with my family.

The academy itself was… boring. If you imagine a normal school, replace the teachers with ninja and change the classes a bit to help create better ninja than civilian classes would. In the same vein, while It is different, however slightly, from schools in my original world, it's just so boring because I went through this already. In math I'm more advanced than some of my teachers. There wasn't any science, ninja not using science, so I'm literally the most advanced person on the planet. Most of history is covered by cannon, whatever isn't being covered by my advanced reading. There were also classes for throwing weapons, which was entirely new, along with nin, tai and genjutsu classes. They had classes for about a month teaching students how to write, before determining their handwriting as legible enough and quitting after that.

I found out a few things from all that, being that I had an amazing level of chakra control, although like my sister that meant I had less chakra overall than most clan kids. While I doubt I'll ever get to levels like Naruto, Sasuke and Kisame, I could certainly train to increase both my reserve's and regeneration speed. To that end, I started just expelling chakra from everywhere I could as fast as I could while training. I didn't even use it to strengthen my muscles, I just pushed it out and forced it to regenerate. I was careful not to go so far as to get chakra exhaustion, so as not to alert anyone to what I was doing, but that didn't mean I wasn't exhausted by the end of each training session though. I also wore weights like Lee, but mine were nowhere near as heavy as his are. I believe at this point I'm almost ready to pass the academy, even if I don't actually try to get high grades. The only reason I'm not dead last is because I'm allowing Naruto to hold that spot to preserve cannon.

XXXXX

It's now the last year of the academy. I sit right next to Sasuke day after day, to keep both of our fan girls from sitting in those seats. Yes, both of us have fan girls. Sasuke because of his family being killed last year, me because of looking so much like a girl. This leads to us being relatively close friends. It wasn't what I had expected when I had been reborn, but it wasn't too bad. When I say it's the last year, it's really genin testing day.

Iruka-sensei walked into the classroom. "As you all know, today is the genin exam. I'm sure I don't have to say this, but I will anyway. The exam is split into four…" at that point I stopped listening and looked over the class. There were roughly thirty students in total, the majority from civilian families. The other seven were from known clans and the one orphan that no-one knows is from a clan, Naruto. They were all the same as in cannon, save who would become team seven, due mostly to me. Sasuke had a friend this time around, leading him to be less closed off. Naruto didn't follow Sakura around for her attention, the two of them kind of being friends and thereby me by proxy. Sakura let Naruto down easier this time, telling him why she didn't like him and he understood even if he wasn't very happy about her still being a fan girl. She was also less violent towards him, more slapping him on the back of his head whenever he got caught after a prank. Naruto also took his studies and pranks more seriously, leading him to, still, be dead last but he also wasn't just scrapping by. I keep myself just above him so I can continue to be lazy, but also not just throw cannon into a volcano to burn.

After the written test, which anyone by the end of the first year could ace, it was on to throwing. We only had to throw kunai and shuriken into a target. Sasuke went to show off by throwing all of them at once. He got 8/10, while me and Naruto had 4/10, throwing them one by one. On the written test I scored just high enough to be above Naruto. In ninjutsu, which you either pass, with or without extra credit, or fail, it's only 100% or 0. Like in the series you had the transformation, clone and substitution. I did them all perfectly, as did Naruto, only he used shadow clones as his chakra levels were too great for normal clones. He would have gotten extra credit had the teachers picked up on it, however they were too shocked over Naruto passing. I passed above him by a margin of ten.

XXXXX

After the exam we had a few days to ourselves before we would be learning about our jonin sensei. During this time, I continued training. At this point I think I've **broken** chakra strings, you know those things puppet users use to move their puppets? Yeah, turns out they can do a bit more than just move puppets. Now when I force out my chakra, it had the tendency to turn visible if I don't pay attention. That is something that normally happens when large amounts of chakra are forced out at the same time and what I do is no different. I might have been underestimating myself about my chakra reserve's before, because I have high chunin to low jonin reserves, but it's my regeneration speed that is my best point. I regain Chakra faster than I can safely just release it. That leaves me able to use several hundred chakra strings at the same time as I regain more than it costs per second. I also wore something new for my Shinobi outfit, namely, something similar to Kakashi's, send jacket and facemask. Simple is best, after all. That said, I still think it'll be Naruto on team seven. I don't actually know what team I'll be placed in actually.

XXXXX

And now is the day for team placements. The day that will shape the future of the world. And- a piece of chalk flew at me and hit me in the head.

"Shiki! Wake up! Today is team assignment day! Now, as I was saying, you are all genin of Konoha..." at that point I just decided to tune him out. I started considering if it was possible to create seals using chakra strings. I know I could, for example, hold a brush and use that to write seals, but was it possible to burn seals into things? Just then, Jiraia of the Sanin came through the window, grabbed Naruto, and jumped back out. Everyone looked to Iruka for an answer. "Yes, well, Naruto is going to be apprenticed to Jiraia instead of having a jonin sensei. Continuing on, Team Seven will be Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno and Shiki Haruno. While normally this wouldn't be allowed in a team, the Hokage believes that their jonin sensei, Kakashi Hatake, can make it work.

I stopped listening, on the outside calm and composed while on the inside I was crying out for the fiery death of cannon. NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME! Well, maybe somethings, but how will Naruto turn out now he's apprenticed to one of the Sanin? How will the rest of Team Seven? Iruka just continued on with the teams, ignorant to my mental breakdown. We waited one hour. Two hours. Three. When he finally arrived, it was to almost being tangled in chakra strings like a Turkey. He managed to avoid that, but still had a eraser land on his head.

"Well, how can I put this, my first impression of you guys is, I hate you. Meet me on the roof in ten minutes." And with that, he vanished. The other two started towards the stairs. I on the other hand, jumped through the window and walked up the wall. Kakashi looked up from his book, a bit surprised at that, but didn't say anything while we waited another eight minutes for the others to arrive. The first was, no surprise, Sasuke followed by my sister.

"Let's start with introductions. You know, your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, things like that." We nodded at that, and he started. "My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have a few likes and a few dislikes. Dreams for the future, you're a bit young for those. Your turn pinky." My sister gained a tick mark.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. My likes are my brother and-" here she stopped and squealed while looking at Sasuke. I sighed and palmed my face. "My dislikes are Ino-pig. My dreams for the future are to protect my brother and-" she looked over to Sasuke and squealed again. Kakashi had a sweat drop the first time. It brought it's friends.

"Next, the little girl with gold eyes." I sank to my knees in despair. Sasuke snorted, and my sister burst out laughing. Kakashi looked on amused and bemused.

"Even my sensei!" I wailed. "I'm a boy. Why does everyone think I'm a girl? Shiki Haruno. My sister, Naruto and Sasuke (friends). Dislikes, people who think I'm a girl." Here I glared at him. He ignored it. "And I just want to protect my sister."

"Next, the brooding emo." Sasuke grunted. Once it was clear we wouldn't continue if he didn't talk, he started.

"Sasuke Uchiha. I have few likes and many dislikes. My dream, no, ambition is to kill a certain man." And that was all we got out of him.

"Ok, arrive at training ground 7 at 9 am for the second genin exam. The first was to see which of the academy students, if any, had what it takes. Each jonin gives another, specific to each jonin, and only 33% actually pass. I suggest not eating breakfast, else you'll puke. Now leave, I want to read in peace." With that he vanished in a swirl of leaves, presumably to his house.

 **XXXXX**

 **That's done, so what do you think? I couldn't get this idea out of my head, so I just wrote it down. That said, the chakra string thing is taken from The Unwoven Threads of Fate. The chakra reserves thing is something I thought up, even if I wasn't the first person to think of it. My thoughts were about Kisame, he is called the tailless tailed beast, and I believe his massive chakra reserves were from his sword eating all of them day after day, and adapting to that. Shill trained for four years similarly to that, only without something eating the chakra. Oh, also, I have ideas on things, do you want me to gender bend any, all or none of the following;**

 **Sasuke**

 **Gaara**

 **Haku**

 **I do have ideas on how that would work, and how he would end up with each of them or a harem If that's what you all prefer. I will ultimately decide how that will go, but I would like your input.**


	3. Archer: Shards

Archer: Shards

An average person from our world, I had just finished a CYOA for Worm, the web serial that likes to tear down the superhero genre. I went to make them as broken as I could without taking the highest-level powers, and was sucked in. My story? Read on!

XXXXX

A crack rang through the room I was in, having cracked my neck. I was sitting in front of my computer, just now having completed the CYOA I was working on. I had chosen to use the Gimel version, due to wanting to make the most broken character I could out of the least broken version, without choosing the highest tier powers. It came out like this-

XXXXX

Worm CYOA, Version 5 Update Gimel

Points Remaining- 1/1

Character-

Gestation +15/15

Hero-New Wave -1/1

Insert-Male-Teenager-High Schooler -0/0

Thematic -3/0

Martial Arts -4/0

Tactics -4/0

Foreign Element -3/3

Perks-Powers

x2-Second Trigger -4/3

Case 53 +0/1 (Cat Ears)

Humble Beginnings +5/5

Plot Relevance

Power Sight -0/1

Unlimited Shard Works -0/7 (Second Trigger)

True or False -0/3 (Second Trigger)

XXXXX

 _'Not too bad, I believe. Of course, if it is ever known what I imagine this character to be able to do, it would have a PRT rating of Trump-12+, Thinker 5 or so. It'll copy the powers of any Parahuman put against them, be able to ask enough questions to guess near-enough the limits of those powers, use any mental powers, and have them copied permanently. Due to Foreign Element, they're also able to mix and match pieces of those powers, which should also be stronger. Like the parallel thinking of Queen Administrator combined with, say, the hard-light shields of those that have them in New Wave, controlling each independently.'_

While I was thinking on how the people who made this didn't catch this loophole, it had finished printing. I had been planning on showing this to several people and see what they thought of it. Of course, that was never going to happen, due to the words on the piece of paper I had picked up shuddering, before ghostly copies drifted off the page and up into the air. The spectral words then shot into my chest, and I dropped the paper. A moment later, I was sucked into the same spot those words disappeared into.

XXXXX

 _When you read a Self-Insert or OC-Insert story, that character is usually aware of what's going on, or at least that they've been reborn, as soon as their born. It wasn't like that for me. I slowly regained my memories over the course of a year, after I had Triggered. In this life, I was named James Greenwood. I was born to two loving parents, who raised me for the next nine years in, as cliché as it is, Brockton Bay. It was during the summer after fifth grade ended, and we were going out for my birthday (9th) on the day they died. We were caught up in a minor skirmish between the E88 and the Merchants. It took around 10 minutes of the 'Heroes' to get there, and at some point, my parents were killed._

 _I remember wishing had some power, any power, so that I could have helped them before they died. It was soon after that the Heroes had arrived, and by then the fight was almost over. I was sent to the only remaining family I had, my grandfather, who was a retired Parahuman from the PRT. He was called Archer, because his power made him shoot perfectly wherever he aimed, with the he used arrows being generated from seemingly nothing. His ability was limited, it did not make him always hit, instead the arrow will always fly through the space he wanted it to. It also didn't work with guns._

 _We had figured out the copying aspect of my power after grandfather demonstrated his for me. I wanted to try, so he chuckled and gave me his bow so I could. I still think he was expecting me to fail so he could tease me. I had failed to remember his abilities came from his power, and at that point my cat ears, which had been buried under my hair until then, unfolded. That shocked him quite a bit, and me actually using my copy his power shocked him even more. He mused on whether I was a Trump, and I asked the same question of myself. Of course, that activated my other power, telling me yes, which I then informed him of. He asked me if I was also a Thinker, I asked myself, and got a yes again. We kept asking questions and getting answers, trying to find the limits to my powers. It seemed the only limit to my Thinker power was that they had to be yes/no questions. If the answers didn't lean towards one or the other, I would get what are commonly known as Thinker headaches. For the next six years, grandfather kept me as far away from the fighting as he could, until he passed away of old age when I was fifteen, part way through the school year and a few days after New Year's. The school I went to obviously being Winslow, because of me not caring enough about my grades to get into Arcadia. He had been quite mischievous while raising me, getting me to take up a verbal quirk, Nya, like you see in anime with cat/Neko people. I can't stop myself from saying it unless I speak carefully, as it's pretty much ingrained by now. Nor do I really want to, as it's one of the few things I have remaining from my grandfather, other than his house and his old bow._

 _It about when my grandfather died that I regained the last few memories I had of my old life, including those of a certain web serial called Worm. Taylor Hebert, the main character of the story, was in another classroom and I couldn't do anything to help her with the locker. On that day, I was doing something else, as to continue with the clichés. On that day was my grandfather's funeral. And this is where my story truly, Begins!_

XXXXX

My grandfather's funeral ended around three hours ago, the school about one. Yesterday, I left my bag at the school. They figured out it was mine, and called to tell me that I had to retrieve it or it would be thrown out before school tomorrow. I entered the building quickly and went to the classroom they told me it would be in. They were too lazy to even move it anywhere else. On my way to the classroom specified, I came across the strange sight of a lot of bugs surrounding a locker that had the most disgusting smell I could remember from either life. ' _Huh. Was that caused by a cape?'_ when I asked the question, I had forgotten about True or False, which told me _yes_. For some reason, I had a growing feeling of dread.

' _Was it a new Trigger?'_

 _Yes_

' _Was it another one of those three's pranks?'_

 _Yes_

' _Is the person in the locker Taylor Hebert?'_

 _Yes_

It was then I remembered the beginning of the web serial, and Taylor's Trigger Event. That explained my dread. I quickly used one part of my grandfather's power to form an arrow, which I proceeded to stab into the lock. With the lock broken, I could take a look at what had happened to Taylor in her time in the locker. It was... not a pretty sight, to say the least. She had various wounds of many severities, most of them looking infected, I could still see bugs trying to eat her. I assume her power is stopping them from doing so, instead they were crawling across her. With a quick command, all bugs in my range, which was a fair bit further than hers, went as far away as they could. It was quite obvious why I remember most fanfiction starting from this point bring in Panacea to heal her. I was quick to call 911.

"911 what is your emergency?" I heard someone respond, in a bit of a bored tone.

"I have a girl here who was trapped in a locker filled with what amounts to toxic waste for the past four hours. She was being eaten alive by bugs, and most of her wounds are infected." I answered quickly.

This time, the person on the other end sounded much more alert. "Where are you calling from?"

"Winslow high school, from the main office go down the hallway, then the second hallway on the left. Down that hallway, and then the first on the right," after I gave the directions, they hung up, hopefully to call an ambulance and pass along my directions. While I waited, I took a few pictures. While fanfiction shouldn't, couldn't be taken as absolute, Winslow was _bad_ and I wasn't about to take chances.

XXXXX

It was about 3 minutes before the ambulance arrived, and the medical personnel ran to where I was. When they got here, they paused for a moment as they saw her. Understandable, and they recovered remarkably quickly. They didn't say anything to me, simply put Taylor on the stretcher and brought me along with them. They occasionally glanced at my cat ears, which were twitching all over the place because of how angry I was, but didn't comment. Right now, I didn't really care that I was outing myself, I was too angry and my civilian identity had nothing they could use as leverage. I had no friends, and the last of my family was my grandfather. On the way to the ambulance, there were several people watching, having hear the sirens and wondered what they were doing in a school. I didn't even bother trying to hid myself, it would be useless anyway, too many people recording as soon as they saw my ears. We quickly got into the vehicles and drove away.

XXXXX

When we got to the hospital, Taylor was put into one of the emergency rooms. Luckily for us, Panacea was on her shift at the moment, due to it being so soon after school hours. She was called down to the room, before we even arrived, and was waiting there for us. One of the doctors gestured for me to tell her what I had seen, not having the time to really examine her during the time it took to make sure she didn't die. The story described her remarkably well, I mused as she looked to me for an explanation.

"As far as I can tell," I started, with a cold anger. "she was trapped in her school locker four-six hours, cramped on top of what is best classified as a combination of biological waste, her own blood and bile, along with whatever small number of bugs that were eating her alive for most of that time that she killed with her thrashing. Most of her wounds seem to be infected, and her fingernails are partially torn off due to her trying to claw the door off. There might be more injuries, but that was as far as I could tell."

She looked horrified through my retelling, and had already gone ahead and started healing Taylor partway through without asking permission. I approved. While I am slightly saddened neither of us had a choice in the matter, my power copied hers as soon as I saw her use it, along with the bio-sight aspect. I walked over and started to copy and help along what Panacea was doing with Taylor's biology, which surprised her, although she seemed grateful for it. Fortunately, she held off on the questions until after we were finished. It was rather interesting what we were doing, as it was based around biokinetics we were using the biomass of herself, the waste, practically everything covering her other than her clothes. It was after Taylor was fully healed, which was almost instantly, when the questions started.

"How?" one word, yet it was all that was needed.

I flicked an ear at her, and she blushed lightly, although she kept staring at me. I sighed, "I am a Trump. I create a copy of any power I see used right in front of me instantly. The powers I copy are always stronger in some way, and I can see powers and their mental effects, which I can also copy. I can also use separate aspects of different powers synergistically with others." I saw her give an involuntary shiver at this, which I could understand. It was a rather terrifying power, I admit. "I can also see the hard-coded limits of those powers, like you with brains, inability to do anything other than healing even if it does use bio-kinetics," I gave her a look, "inability to heal yourself, and the time it takes you to heal people. My power disregards all of those. Hard-coded, because other than a couple of Trump powers, you cannot change that. If I obtained a Mover power I would go faster, Thinker I would get more information with fewer headaches, with a Brute I would be stronger, ect." I finished my explanation there.

She was speechless for several seconds, before commentating on what I said, "That would be... Trump 10, _at_ _least_. Almost certainly 12+. That, is _terrifying_." She certainly looked scared. I smiled soothingly at her.

"Best part is? After today, I don't have a civilian identity. Kind of hard to, after being caught on quite a few cameras without my ears hidden," I watched her as she thought through what I said. She was a smart girl, so it didn't take her very long to work through and figure out the meaning of what I said.

"You- want to join New Wave!?" She sounded quite astonished. I continued smiling.

"Yup! My grandfather was _very_ good friends with yours, Nya~!" She stared at me for a minute, while I managed to look both horrified and nostalgic at the same time. She then proceeded to laugh her head off, rolling on the floor.

"Did-did you seriously just say _Nya_?"

"Yes, when my grandfather took me in after m-my parents died, we were testing out my powers, and my cat ears popped up. Ever since, he tried everything he could to make me say it. By now, it's just habit. Even still, I don't want to stop. It's one of the few things I have to remember him by, now." My voice got quieter towards the end, enough so that I wasn't entirely certain that she heard me. Evidentially she did, because soon after I finished speaking, she got up and hugged me. It was a bit awkward, I doubted she often tried to comfort someone whose family died, and mostly only hugged her sister in the first place, yet I still appreciated it.

She let go or me after a minute, and continued with the conversation of me possibly joining New Wave. "If you really want to join, we'll have to talk to the rest of our group about it."

 **XXXXX**

 **I think I'll end this here. So, this came about while I was thinking on one of my other stories, remembered this particular CYOA, and wondered if anyone else had thought of this loophole. The only reason this has a chance of being as broken as I imagine it to be is because I think of Abaddon Shards as either increasing or removing certain limits on powers. Parts of it are almost entirely broken, say using the parallel thought processes of Queen Administrator, layering effect of Skidmark's power, and then you can either layer those hard-light shields of the Dallon's, or control a lot of them independently from one another.**


	4. Frozen Quetzalcoatl

Frozen Quetzalcoatl

I had just completed another CYOA for the Worm web serial, when I was pulled in! Now, I transform up to and into a higher-than-S-class threat, another Endbringer, in the form of the Deity Quetzalcoatl from Aztec legends, with domain over Ice!

Chapter 1

A crack rang through the room I was in, having cracked my neck. I was sitting in front of my computer, just now having completed the CYOA I was working on. I had chosen to use the Gimel version, due to wanting to make a literal Endbringer without having to choose that as a path, and still have something else, while keeping it somewhat balanced. It came out like this-

XXXXX

Worm CYOA, Version 5 Update Gimel

Points Remaining- +0/0

Character-

Gestation +15/15

Vigilante  
(Endbringer-Beast-150 feet  
Telekinesis-Gravity-Sandbox-Elementalism  
Sibling Rivalry-Worthy Opponent)

Drop-In +3/3

Budget +2/0

Foreign Element -3/3

Perks/Flaws-

Rough Start +2/0

Case 53 +0/2 (Swan Wings, slitted emerald eyes, and draconic claws instead of fingernails)

Memory Death +4/0

Endbringer Target +3/ 4

S9 +4/2

Power Slot(refund) +0/1

Psychic Nosebleed +0/3 (tied to Final Form)

Worst Day Ever x2 +2/1

Second Trigger -4/3

Secret Lair -2/0

Plot Convenience -1/0

Gift-

Metaknowledge

Powers-

Final Form -25/25 (Second Trigger) (Psychic Nosebleed)

Stark Winter -5/5

Path-

Ambivalent +4/4  
PRT Info -5/0  
Blade -1/0

 _For Want of a Nail -25/0 (Scion quietly committed suicide a few years ago)_

XXXXX

' _So, this time it will be a large snake of an Endbringer, about 150 feet long, with a pair wings every so often along it's back. It'll carry itself with its Telekinesis instead of the five pairs of wings themselves, and can shrink to around 5 feet long, and anything proportionally from its max to min length. It will be in various shades of dark and light blue, with emerald eyes and the wings looking like those of a giant swan's would, making it look somewhat like a living ice sculpture. My god, Lung is going to hate him!'_ I laughed for a moment. _'Of course, his Endbringer powers scale to his size, and Stark Winter will allow him to use ice while still in human form, and up to the point where he is a 100 feet long.'_

While I was thinking on how I wanted my story to go this time, which I saw as being pretty much Lung's opposite while still being reptilian, it had finished printing. I had been planning on showing this to several people and see what they thought of it. Of course, that was never going to happen, due to the words on the piece of paper I had picked up shuddering, before ghostly copies drifted off the page and up into the air. The spectral words then shot into my chest, and I dropped the paper. A moment later, I was sucked into the same spot those words disappeared into.

That piece of paper wouldn't be found until several days later, when his previous place of work got tired of calling his phone those past few days and called the police to find him. The case eventually went cold with no evidence of anything except that one piece of paper.

XXXXX

The first thing that I noticed as soon as I came out from that portal, was that I was falling. And that I was the smallest version of the Endbringer I had designed, but that was irrelevant. I wondered how it was that I was as calm as I was, but I didn't care all that much. Right now, I had several ways I could get down. One of which was just to use my Telekinesis and fly, but that would be boring. As would just falling, even at this length I wouldn't be hurt all that much. I was, after all, an Endbringer and even now I was tougher than any normal human, not to mention the completely different body structure. I decided to create a slide of ice. That was fun, and I chirped my little head off. Of course, due to Worst Day Ever, my slide went right into ABB territory, and I could hear Lung somewhere around. That wasn't so fun.

Worse still, I was now at the feet of Lung. Who was already ramped up decently. With a bunch of bugs surrounding and trying to bit him. This was ultimately futile, what with all the fire on him. I now knew that this is the point where Taylor fights Lung. Of course, she doesn't much like attention, so I would be fine fighting him myself. However, I didn't care much for it either, so I just grew to twenty feet and wrapped myself around him. I then trapped us both in a pillar of ice. I left my head out as well so I could speak. Of course, I didn't have great control over these powers, and all I did have was going into freezing and shattering the poison/venom in him, so the pillar grew to the size of the Med-Hall building. This meant that everyone in the city could see it. I thought better of saying in my pillar, and shrunk myself and slithered out. I also created ice in the space left behind when I left it. I was now back to 5feet. I started looking around for… there! There Taylor is, she smelled funny, a bit surprised? But, I'm so tired- I flew towards her and wrapped myself around her neck. I could smell her bemusement just before I fell asleep. This was warm.

XXXXX

Taylor looked at the- snake? Dragon? Something else? -that was around her neck with a sense of confused amusement. She heard three sounds, that of something large hitting the ground hard. The sounds immediately woke up the snake around her neck, which flew into the air and stated at the kids sitting on what looked like giant, monstrous dogs. The snake chose that point to shift into a human, a blue-haired boy who looked around fifteen years old. With wings. And claws. The strange thing was his transformation from a small snake to a gigantic to small again then back to human didn't either make his clothes fall off, or rip them to shreds. However, as many people have been known to say, powers are bullshit at the best of times. Then; he spoke.

"The Undersiders, correct?" He asked in a strange voice, with a tinge of amusement. His voice was mostly normal, a bit deeper than most his age, however there was a slight hissing undertone.

One of the kids on the dogs was shaking, a girl in a purple bodysuit, was shaking even as she spoke up. "He knows all of us. Both our Cape identities and civilian. But he doesn't know how. A Thinker? No. He's-" She stopped there, eyes wide, and had the one controlling those dogs take them away as fast as they could.

XXXXX

I had a good guess on two reasons they left. One, that Lisa girl found out my 'ratings' and got scared. The other, Armsmaster, who will be here in about two seconds, or some combination of the two. I went back to being a tiny flying snake and wrapped around Taylor's neck again, keeping one eye open. Soon enough, Armsmaster arrived on his motorcycle. He was, almost exactly as described in the story.

"You gonna fight me?"

Before she could answer, I flew up to and about two feet away from him. I shook my head and transformed back. He looked a bit startled, or at least what I could see of his face did, but that went away quickly. I guess he's met all sorts of people working for the PRT.

"Neither of us have any wish to fight you." I told him. "As far as I know, she is trying to be a hero, and thought she was saving a couple of kids from getting killed. I have no interest in either Heroics or Villainy. Both can be as bad as the other."

His face hardened. "Explain." He commanded. I know I don't have to oblige him, but I might as well.

"Politics and quotes. Collateral damage and human nature. 'You either die as a Hero, or live to see yourself become the Villain.' 'The path to hell is paved with good intentions.' Heroes often cause as much damage in their fights as the one their fighting, but are never punished for it. Humans always fear the unknown, that power is often used for their own ends." I could see I had given him something to think about, but he put it aside for now in order to do his job. I could respect that much, at least. I don't know what my personality was like before, but now it is a combination of the bird and the snake.

"She doesn't look like a Hero." I could see her wince at that.

"Neither does Shadow Stalker." I retorted.

"Point." He let it go at that. "You got a name?" For the first time this conversation he addressed her directly.

"No. Do you know how hard it is to find a bug-themed name that doesn't make me sound like a supervillain or a complete dork?"

He chuckled, showing real emotion for the first time this meeting. "I wouldn't know. I got into the game early enough that I didn't have to worry about missing out on all the good names."

"Suggestions; Skitter, Weaver, Ladybug, Firefly, Honeybee, Wasp, Dragonfly, etc." I spoke up. "You could just name yourself after a certain species of bug, something related to bugs, it doesn't even have to be bug-themed, your superhero name doesn't have to describe you."

"More questions for you so Armsmaster knows more about what you can do, what is your range, do you have a limit on the number of bugs you can control in your range, is it just bugs or is there more creatures you can control?"

"Um, no limit on the number, as long as it's within a block or two, and any bug along with arachnids, worms, things like that."

I nodded and turned back to Armsmaster, who looked a small bit impressed. "That should allow you to get a better handle on her powers, and what to focus on testing for. Makes it a bit more efficient." He nodded and looked approving. "I believe you have power testing, which would be beneficial for all of us. Lung needs to be brought in as well, and I'm the only one who has a certain chance of freeing him safely, seeing as how I was the one to put him there in the first place. You have one almost-certain recruit, and I have no problem working with you even if I don't join." I finished.

He started walking away and gestured for us to follow him. Both me and Taylor did so. I grew to thirty feet this time, and melted all of the ice pillar except a vaguely square-shaped area that held Lung, before Telekinetically carrying it and putting Taylor on one of the dips on my back, just behind one of my pairs of wings. This sequence of events stalled Armsmaster for a moment, before he continued on. At this length, I was roughly the height and width of a small car. He drove away and I continued to follow him.

XXXXX

The force-field road was interesting, and Lung is now in one of the cells in the Rig. Specifically, one meant for holding high-level Brutes. The testing room that they had was simply a large, mostly empty space. Sure, it had several specifically designed areas to test those types of powers needing them, but they were few and far between. It _looked_ large enough to hold my full size, but I wasn't entirely sure. The empty space was large and/or area of effect powers. My abilities fit into both.

Armsmaster started. "Now, with what Ms. Bug-controller told us, who we still don't have a name for, there isn't much we can do to test her powers other than finding the largest creatures her ability will allow control of, and finding out if there is a limit to the number she can control. We don't have the capabilities to test those at this point in time, so we'll move on to you." He looked at me when he said this.

I nodded before telling him what I knew about my powers. "Other than what I get out of my Changer form, as a human I can create ice anywhere within my line of sight, or anyplace that I know what is in the area, to the point I could make a castle fully furnished directly behind me. My wings, which are basically indestructible, allow me to fly. All of my senses are enhanced, to the rough equivalence of me being able to track a fly moving twenty feet away, and hearing your heartbeat through your armor from five. My claws can cut through soft-wood with little difficulty." He noted all this down, or rather, had his suit recording all that I said.

"Now, it's with my Changer power that it gets interesting. All powers that form gives me scale exponentially with the size I am at the time, and I have four different powers. Telekinesis, allowing at minimum length, five feet long, to fly, and at maximum the raw power to lift and hold the city in the sky, and the control to move separate molecules in that range." Jaws were dropped at this. "The next is Gravity Manipulation, minimum and I have can increase my weight ten-fold or eliminate it entirely, max and I can either make it to near black hole levels, or have the entire area lose all of it, range is again city-wide." This time I waited until the both of them weren't nearly comatose until continuing, before I was interrupted.

Armsmaster asked a question before I could continue, "How long are you at your limit?"

"200 or so feet long, and I have about the same width/diameter, or whatever the word is, as an average bus." I showed them my full size. **"I can even talk in this form, as long as I am more than twenty feet long."** I let them think on that for a moment before continuing.

"The next power is best called Matter Reconstruction, and allows me to do exactly that from the size of a childes letter block to two miles in range. The last power is control over all water on earth, with emphasis on ice, and the warmer the water is, the harder it is to control. The ice power I have access to in human form is more effective until fifty feet long, and impossible to use after a hundred."

It took them both almost twenty minutes to get over their sudden terror, and another five to think remotely coherently. They turned towards each-other, and said with a weird synchrony, "Changer/Shaker 12+," it was an absolute statement, as though it were just a fact. Which it most likely was. I turned to walk away, before Armsmaster called out to me.

"I need a name for the report!" He said in a slightly higher than normal pitch tone.

I shrugged before calling back, "As a cape, Frozen Quetzalcoatl. As normal, well, James Greenwood will do."

XXXXX

Omake: The First Task of The Triwizard Tournament

Harry walked out of the tent, wand in hand, and stood a ways away from the dragon in the center of the Quidditch Pitch. He was scared and shaking, but he had a plan. ' _Calm down, you have a plan. All it takes is one Accio,'_ he told himself in his head.

He raised his wand high into the sky, and shouted out the one spell he would use in this task.  
" _Accio Familiar!"_

Everyone there waited a moment, until as one, they all looked up and saw something covered in feathers falling down to the ground. The, what they now know to be wings, snapped open a few feet from the ground, revealing it to be a boy, a year older than Harry himself, with ice-blue hair, claws, emerald slitted eyes, and the obvious wings. His voice, when he spoke, was strange. Cold, but not unkind, a hissing undertone, but no-one could compare this to how Voldemort spoke.

"What do you wish me to do, sir?" Was the question.

"Your orders are to retrieve the golden egg. Your opponent, the dragon. The dragon is not to be killed, however they wish for a show!" Harry said in a grand voice. The boy with the wings just nodded, then _changed_.

He was now an absurdly long snake, with five pairs of wings along its back, like the ones it had when it was human. Its eyes were the same, only larger. As it breathed, frost flowed out of its mouth and onto the field. Suddenly, the ground was now ice, and the snake flew into the air. After an amazing show of acrobatics and flexibility from both the flying snake and the dragon, it froze the dragon in a block of ice, and brought the egg over to Harry in one of its clawed arms. The ice all shattered a moment later, and as with the other champions before him, went into the medical tent.

 **XXXXX**

 **That's the first chapter of this story complete. If you haven't noticed the pattern yet, most if not all of OC/MC's are going to be called James Greenwood. Also, due to the shard and his lost memories, his personality has changed to what I believe to be some combination of the snake and the bird that make up his Changer form. That is all. Oh yeah! This is also my single longest chapter to date, at nearly three thousand words. It's unlikely that that is going to change anytime soon, so don't expect this to happen often.**


	5. A:S C2

Archer: Shards

An average person from our world, I had just finished a CYOA for Worm, the web serial that likes to tear down the superhero genre. I went to make them as broken as I could without taking the highest-level powers, and was sucked in. My story? Read on!

 **Right, before anyone asks, as no-one has yet, Amy and Jason will not be in a romantic relationship, instead are going to have an older sister/younger brother one. Just thought I needed to get that out of the way now, before anyone asks about it.**

Chapter 2

Soon after Amy stopped trying to comfort me, she got up to continue healing other people. I went to some of the various medical staff, and asked where I could go to talk to someone about healing with Parahuman powers. I received directions, followed them, and asked there. I received a reply in the positive, and went off healing others in a different direction than Amy did. I helped quite a bit, as I could heal many and injury that would take her possibly hours within minutes. Of course, I left a few bugs watching over Taylor, along with directions to notify me as to when her dad came in. As stated in the canon, bug senses weren't very good, on top of not being very compatible with our own, but overlaying several looking at the same thing gives a decent enough picture for what I wanted. Soon enough, Danny Hebert came in to find his daughter. As soon as I found he had entered the building, I walked over her room to greet him, and tell him what I knew.

XXXXX

When I walked in, I found Mr. Hebert sitting in one of the chairs surrounding her bed.

"Mr. Hebert?" I asked him.

"Yes, who is it?" He saw my ears, but other than a slight widening of the eyes, had little reaction.

"I am James Greenwood, I was the one to pull your daughter from the locker." I started without preamble. Seeing his eyes grow wider, I sighed and decided to start from the beginning. "I would have thought that you would have been informed when you got here. It doesn't matter now. Ms. Hebert here was locked in her school locker for a minimum of four hours, sitting in biological waste, with bugs crawling over her, which seemed to have been eating her alive for at least an hour," I stated bluntly. He quickly turned pale, however I continued on. "Roughly an hour after school hours ended, I was called in to grab my bag, which I had left there the previous day. Soon after, I arrived to get it, and walked by a mass of bugs surrounding a single locker. I wondered if it was from a Cape, and opened the locker. Your daughter fell out, and I called an ambulance. They arrived, and put her in the vehicle. As I was the one who called, and apparently knew more about it at the time, they brought me along with them here. As it was so soon after the end of school hours, Panacea was called to heal her. She is now perfectly healthy." My explanation, especially the end of it, caused him to sag in relief.

"Why is she still asleep?" He asked.

"A few reasons, part of which is likely her mind resting from the... events... of the day. I suggest transferring her to Arcadia as soon as you can. There is another reason, however, and is possibly more important in the long term, if only for the long-term effects." He looked up from his daughter at this, and motioned for me to continue. I obliged. "During her time in the locker, at what time exactly is unknown, she Triggered."

He looked horrified at this, and I couldn't blame him. Trigger Events were terrible things, and tended to be thought worse off than killing someone. It is understandable, Trigger Events are literally the worst days of a person's life. Events surrounding someone's death often would often be less traumatic than most Triggers. "Her power is bug control on a massive scale, paired with a staggering level of parallel processing, allowing for the independent control of every single bug in her range. Her sleep right now is a biological process started by me, in order for her mind to adapt to the mental and sensory overload caused by her power, as it is still a lot of minds all connected to hers, and it dumped a lot of information into her mind." He looked, gob smacked I believe is the correct term, before he started thinking about it.

"But how do you know all this, and how did you start that process?" He asked me.

"I was able to, because my own power is a Trump. I have the ability to see powers, tell their limits and create permanent, stronger copies for my own use. However, I have to see the power used right in front of me to copy it, and it doesn't work through picture or video. I can use different pieces of those powers in conjunction with others, although I cannot control my power copying others. I saw Taylor using her power unconsciously to surround her locker with those bugs, and copied it then. My own power saved me from the mental backlash, so I didn't have the same problem. I also copied Panacea's power when I saw her use it on Taylor, and as I lack most of the hard limits on those powers, was able to start on that process as I explained it to you." I heard a whispered ' _thank you'_ , but didn't comment.

XXXXX

It wasn't too long before Amy's shift ended, and at that point she called her sister to come pick her up. Of course, seeing as there is little to no traffic in the sky, she arrived quickly. The descriptions in the book didn't due her justice! She looked amazing! Perfect! -right up to the point my power copied hers and negated the effect due to my own aura.

"Do you mind not blasting people with your aura as soon as you meet them?" I questioned her mildly, a spark of mischief in my eye.

Glory Girl looked shocked. "Wha-bu- you're not affected?"

I adopted an amused expression. "Oh, I was. Right up to the point my power decided it didn't like yours, made a copy, and then negated your power with my new one. Of course, I had to limit the output so as not to simply reverse the effect, and instead to only negate it, but that's beside the point. It's time to go now, isn't it? Come on, Nya!" I shot up and flew away before she could recover from her confusion. She grabbed her sister and soon led the way.

XXXXX

We soon arrived at the Dallon's house, where the rest of the family was waiting, mostly patiently. It was Brandish who spoke up first.

"Vicky, why did you call a meeting? And who is this?" Carol Dallon asked, with a bit of a frown on her face.

"James Greenwood, ma'am." I piped up, hiding a smile. I could tell she somewhat recognized the name, even if she was still frowning.

"He wants to join the team, mom." Vicky told her.

"Why?"

I had that spark in my eye again. "Well, your father and my grandfather were really good friends, right? Andrew Dallon and Jeffry Greenwood used to call you _little Carry_ , yes? Isn't that right, _Auntie Carry_?" She froze in place, embarrassed and mortified. Everyone there, other than her, all started laughing their heads off. I was soon voted in by just about everybody.

"So, what are your powers?" One of them asked me. So, I explained again. By the end of it they were all shocked and not just a little impressed.

"Anything you can say about us?" The same person asked. This time I recognized her, her name was Crystal.

"Well, Vicky's a lot weaker than she should be, but I can't really tell you anything you haven't found out yourself, Nya." I said offhand.

"She's _Weaker_ than she should be?" She asked with incredulity.

I asked a question of her. "How hard is it for you to do three to four things at once? Her power has to control her aura, flight, strength, and her shield all at once, and doesn't do a particularly good job at any of them. The flight, strength, and aura are all active effects, while the shield is passive. If she could completely suppress her aura, her strength would be near Alexandria level, and her shield could take the equivalent force of a nuke head on before breaking. It wouldn't repair itself any faster, and it will still only block physical attacks, but..." Seeing their looks, I sighed. "I told you, part of my power allows me to see what others can do."

Carol Dallon _looked_ at her daughter.

XXXXX

It was about two hours later that Vicky finally managed to suppress her aura, having finally made an actual effort to do so on top of encouragement from her frankly terrifying mother, and soon after she, Amy, and I went on a patrol. The patrol area overlapped with the wards, but that was nearly unavoidable, and in fact helped in most cases.

Twenty minutes later, and I was screaming while my power tried to make sense of the one it copied. Once I stopped screaming my head of, roughly two minutes after that, I was finally able to stand up and use my power to heal myself.

"Are you okay?" I heard a young voice ask. I recognized Vista, which explained why I was in so much pain.

I nodded a bit. "I'm fine, it was just a bit of a bad reaction to our powers, not your fault."

Vicky looked a bit confused at this. "How could a power copying power have a bad reaction with any power? There were some kind of distortions all around you while you were screaming!"

I shook my head at her. "That's not all my power does, as I've explained to you. It's involuntary permanent, amplified copying of others powers when I see them used."

"Wait, so you stole my power?" Vista asked me, seeming a bit angry.

"Not exactly. I have no control over my power, and I don't steal them. I make a copy, which I can then use. It's not even really amplified, as such, instead what I do is remove certain limits powers have. There apparently was no way to do that with your power instead of removing the Manton Limit, so instead what it did what shove all the spatial math your power does for you into my head. I can also use pieces or entirely different powersets together to do something like this Nya!" As I said that, I turned myself into a cat and jumped into her arms, and looked up to her with my little kitty face. She immediately started petting me, very happy now, and I started purring. A few seconds later, the others started laughing and I jumped away from her and turned back to a human. I kept the tail, though.

I scowled at them. "I will reverse your genders," that immediately had them all stop laughing, and they all looked scared of my threat.

"You wouldn't!" Vicky cried.

I smiled sweetly, although something about it seemed twisted to them. They all started shivering, until I decided I had scared them enough and my smile turned normal, all without me moving a muscle.

"How did you even turn into a cat anyway?" Gallant spoke up for the first time this conversation.

"The answer's fairly obvious if you think about it, I manipulate my biomass on the surface to look like a cat, and fold the excess into pockets of expanded space, so that I shrink to the correct size. I could do anything; I just need enough biomass and the same shrinking or expanding if it's a larger thing." In explanation, I brought around 1,000 bugs to me, not even 1/100th of all the bugs in my range, turned them all into biomass, made a hole in space to the entrance of another hole on the inside of my skull, greatly expanded to be able to hold all of it, and used it to turn into a cat large enough for all four of them to ride. I then jumped and bent space in such a way that I was standing on a platform of biomass turned into living wood. It wasn't really there, the platform was in biomass pocket, so it looked like I was standing on the air.

I explained all of this to them, and had the amusing experience of watching them all gape at me. Maybe because I was talking while still being in the form of a rather large cat? Suddenly, the sound of several guns going off was heard in the distance. Pretty much usual in the city of Brockton Bay, unfortunately.

We all quickly rushed over to the area the gunshots were heard from, and saw a small battle between the ABB and the E88. Included in the fight were three capes, Oni Lee, Cricket, and Stormtiger. As I watched, Oni Lee dropped one of his grenades near Cricket and teleported away, while she ran as far away from it as she could as fast as she could. That had me copying both their powers, and scowling when I saw one of the E88 grunts caught in the blast and killed. I quickly decided not to ever use Lee's power; I had no interest in losing my mind. I had just one question.

"Will anyone other than Lung mind if I kill him?" I asked, deadly serious. The others looked thoughtful, before Vista shook her head.

"I think the only ones who'll really care are the ABB. He doesn't even help them much, for the most part the E88 is held off by Lung's reputation." She told me; a bit uneasy but not uncertain.

I walked off the roof and onto another of a different building, using my spatial powers to make what was essentially a door between the two points. I used my biokinetic power and the biomass still inside my pocket, having turned back from the large cat form soon after we got on the first roof, to make a living sniper rifle. I had not bought Marksmanship from the CYOA, but I had no need of it when my grandfather's power was so much better. Perfect accuracy at no cost instead of around five points.

I made five different pockets that I filled with air; 25 ft cubed, and compressed those rooms to only around a millimeter cubed, with for-now closed 'doors' on the back of the barrel to shoot the bullet. Those pockets I overlaid on top of each other, and waited until he stopped teleporting to get a clean shot off on him. Once I had it, I bent space around his face to make him unable to see, my bio-gun to stop the sound from going anywhere, and took the shot strait through his mask, brain, and his Corona Pollentia and Gemma. So, even if that shot doesn't kill him almost instantly, somehow, he'll never be able to use his powers again. The bullet, made of altered bone, was just stong enough to get out of his head, but broke into pieces as soon as it hit the building behind him.

All combat stalled as I walked down steps that weren't there, my costume now on. I had gone over the design for a few moments, and it looked like a normal cape outfit, more specifically the differences were it being a dark blue suit of biomass with my face uncovered, and a logo over my heart, inside which the 'shards' of it were either breaking off and falling into the void or forming a connection with others, all of it constantly floating on top of that void that seems to go on forever, the entire thing a passive look that was entirely random other than a piece that falls always rising to take the place of already fallen piece from a second before. My living weapon melted back into me, and I spoke. Only one word was spoken.

"Scatter." Nothing special, just the word. It was spoken calmly, but with an edge of steel. No 'temperature dropping so much you can feel it' or anything like that, just the word. No malice, I held no real hatred for any of them, but nonetheless they all ran like the hounds of Hell were at their heels.

But they couldn't run. They were all trapped in their own mostly separate areas, a box that regenerated as they moved, remaking itself from what gets destroyed behind them as they run. There were now two islands on my logo, one holding all the rooms of the E88 members, the other the ABB. All my rooms, from the containment inside my suit logo to the biomass one on my skull, were all anchored to that very same symbol. Now, I made another inside my heart, to hold all and any of my biomass suits that I will ever make.

I proceeded to walk up to walk up to my new friends, standing on the air again. Which for some reason people find more disconcerting than people just flying. An amusing effect, but I do like walking on the air more than flying.

They looked a bit... befuddled? I think that's the word. Anyway, they all look like they are trying to understand what just happened. Taking mercy on them, I explained what I could without explaining the spatial mathematics, which were a bitch to understand, even with the equivalent of 30,000 minds working on it for all of those two minutes.

I decided to explain why I wanted to kill him. "His confirmed kill count was well into the hundreds. Higher than some of the S9 members, who all have Kill Orders, and he was still running around killing people. He doesn't even have a power that makes him difficult to kill! He's just left running around, unchecked, and no-one cares! People who don't have powers and kill even a tenth are easily given the death sentence, but he hasn't been!" I, exploded would be a good description. The next part made me sad, no matter it was Oni Lee. "Even still, I didn't like killing him. It was, however, a mercy for everyone, even him. The original Oni Lee died when he triggered. His power leaves the original standing there to take the hit, while a clone continued living, leaving pieces of his mind behind every time he cloned himself. He didn't even have any true personality left, he used his power too often, and all that was left was a mindless killing machine."

The others were sad as well, no matter who it is, no one deserves to live like that. The phrase, "There are things worse than death," comes to mind. This is one of them.

"If you need a name for your report," I started for Vista and Gallant, "for being a Cape it would be ShardKitty. If I decide to use anything else that's similar it'll probably be shortened to that by PHO anyway, Nya." I told them dryly.

I made a Hole to the police department, waved back to them, then stepped through with Amy and Vicky, the Hole closing behind us.

 **XXXXX**

 **Looks like I was wrong in the Authors note from F.Q., it looks like this will also be 3,000+. Not that it's a bad thing, but still. So, any comments? This will also officially be another story of mine. I have way too many unfinished, with partially done chapters and many ideas which I can't seem to write down. F.Q. probably won't be continued, though. Before I leave, I'll give you this amusing thought I had; Quetzalcoatl James meets Uber and L33t, and they decide to reenact the game...**

 **.**

 **.**

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 **JETPACK JOYRIDE!**

 **Think on that, and good-bye!**


	6. Wizard of Worm

Wizard of Worm

An average person from our world, I just wanted to be as overpowered as possible. That was easy, just choose to use the Worm CYOA V1. Thing is, I decided since this wasn't possible to ever become real, I chose Skitter mode and only one power to be the tiniest bit more balanced. Oh, how wrong I was...

 **Sorry to any of you who notice the changes to this chapter and get confused. While walking, I remembered a sentence in Shattered Limiter about doubling the slots for powers with that effect. I went and changed a few things to fix that mistake. Enjoy, if you wish.**

Chapter 1

I awake falling from the sky. Well, no, that isn't exactly correct, it's more like I teleported into the sky without remembering anything in-between the action. Either way, I am now falling from the sky, and onto a city. What was I doing last? Oh yeah, I had done one of those chose your own adventure stories from Worm. I did limit myself quite a bit, but was still overpowered. Raistlin. That was the name I had chosen for my Cape persona, based off of the books with him. It made sense at the time, I was only allowing myself to create powers in the theme of magic, without personal physical powers like strength, speed, or durability. It went as follows –

XXXXX

Raistlin, Wizard of Worm

Points: 0

Self-Insert

Skitter Mode: Wizard theme only, created powers start half as strong, CYOA power sensory range very limited if it has one

Power Manipulator –2

Perks/Complications

Blank –1

Invictus –1

Shattered Limiter –1

Secret Lair –1

Leviathan +2

Slaughter House 9 +4

XXXXX

Huh. I'm going to need some way to stop myself from falling to my death, aren't I? Right then, my power reacted to my thoughts and gave me a minor Telekinesis power, level 3. At this level, it was just enough to fake low-speed flight on one target of around the weight of an average man, I.e., me. Right now, this was allowing me to fall slowly enough that I wouldn't fall to my death.

For today, and possibly for the next few days, I decided to focus on creating new powers, and getting them up enough in the ratings to be effective. I used my next two charges to create a mediocre Teleportation power, level 5. I could teleport to anywhere within my line of sight, or anywhere I could visualize. I used it to teleport to my 'Secret Lair', really just a repurposed lighthouse that was now owned by me, under my civilian name of James Greenwood. It was now an effective Wizard's Tower, disguised as the lighthouse everyone else knows it as.

Of the seven charges I had left, three were used on an item creation power. With this, I could create large amounts of real, complex materials, small amounts of simple fictional materials, with one use in a fifty foot radius. Level 7.

My next two powers were very minor, one essentially a drastically weakened Shapeshift, and a personal Pocket Dimension. The Pocket Dimension was boosted twice, leaving the powers at level 2 and 7 respectively. The first, for now, only allows for me to switch between two preset human forms. One the utterly average form I look normally, the second, apparently literally the form of Raistlin. I have no idea if that's just my powers idea of a joke or if it's for some other reason, but that is definitely going to be the form I use for my Wizard form. The second is exactly what it sounds like, a space about the size of an average house that I can put things in and take things out of. That took the rest of my charges, and as it was already night in the first place, I decided to just go to sleep in the bed provided to me in my Tower.

XXXXX

By the time I woke up the next morning, all my charges had reformed. I put one into my Telekinesis, bringing it up to level 5 and giving it a great increase in everything. It could now target three man-sized targets simultaneously, or one target up to the weight of a large truck. The allowed movement speed was a lot quicker as well, faster than most people could run. Precision wise, well, I was able to make my breakfast with it, so that's good. The next charge was used to upgrade my Shapeshift. At the rating of 4, I could now turn into any human form, keeping my presets.

Another was used to create a Barrier power strong enough to act like a concrete wall, and slowly moving. Level 3, only because it can block a few bullets before breaking. I used my next two charges to create a Healing power, level 5. It allowed for the healing of injuries up to and including lost limbs and minor brain injuries, like a concussion, on up to five targets at once. It did, however, have a wait time after casting of around twelve minutes after using it on one target, increasing linearly from there. It just pushes the concept of 'Health' into the target, so that limit will not change due to the severity of the injury, only the complexity of the issue will determine what can be healed.

Four charges all went into making an Illusion power, Level 8. It can either be used in a cube fifty feet squared, or targeted on up to ten people. The Illusions effected all the senses, and could even fake being physical. It could not, however, cause physical harm to those affected. The last charge went into making a minor Telepathic power, Level 3. A power requires conscious activation, that gave me a basic 'feel' for someone's emotions.

I decided I would wander around today, get familiar with the city. No matter how amazing my powers were, I couldn't do much with them for now. The staff and robes in my tower, because of course I had some, went into my Pocket Dimension. Walking around, I saw plenty of people. A bit less than you would normally find in a city of this size, but it's not that bad. At the very least, no one noticed the new person in the city. While walking around, I looked for a job. Like the thing said, I only have a hundred dollars, and that's not enough. Luckily, the ever-present fast food restaurants were was hiring. All that was required was the fake I.D. that came with my Tower. It wouldn't stand up to official scrutiny, but it was enough. The pay wasn't much, but it was enough for food.

One good thing was I was an adult instead of a teenager as you see in a lot of SI stories. No school for me! Instead, my time was limited by my working hours. Which, weren't all that bad, actually. I worked part-time in the early mornings, Which worked out fine. I was an early riser anyway. So I don't work in the afternoon. Capes, and just a lot of people in general, have a lot of weird times that they work.

Right now, things were rather boring. Nothing would really happen until tomorrow, so I had nothing to do. As far as I know, there weren't any Cape fights until-

Well now. Is this due to Butterflies or just some random skirmish? Skidmark fighting Alabaster. Strange match up, neither can really do much against the other. They're just fighting in the middle of the street. All of Alabaster's bullets are being slowed enough by Skidmark's force fields enough that he can move out of the way, and nothing he does to Alabaster lasts long enough to break the stalemate. I copied and altered Alabaster's Power, then changed to my Cape form and clothes when no one was watching.

"And what seems to be the problem here?" I, now Raistlin, asked the both of them.

I filtered out the profanity and supremacy from both of their respective responses, and was left with the information that Alabaster went off on his own to increase Empire territory. This angered Skidmark, who then insulted the Empire. Being the fanatic he was, Alabaster started shooting. Skidmark, while not smart, was cunning enough to have been putting up enough force fields to stop the bullets, which then led to this.

"And who the Hell are you?" They asked in stereo, both annoyed, if not angry. I smirked into my hood before replying.

"I am a Wizard, Raistlin. Now why don't the both of you go back to where you belong?" So saying, I picked them up with a wave of my staff, and threw them both into their own gang areas. Now, that counted, on technicality, as a fight due to acting hostilely with others. Both of them would be fine, even if they didn't both have ways to stop their momentum, they didn't fall very far. I also learned my Telekinesis had a range of fifty feet before releasing whatever I was holding, for now.

I walked away, leaving the observer's to their thoughts. I wonder what PHO will think of this?

XXXXX

The next part of the day was spent wandering the more… decrepit parts of the city. Its saddening how much that applies to the area. It's not even a quarter of the city, but still much more than most first world cities from my earth. I managed to find the base of the Undersiders, and only just due to finding Regent five feet from the very edge of the range of telekinesis. I didn't enter, just noted the place in my mind before carrying on. I did test the altered power I obtained from Alabaster. It didn't turn me chalk white, but it did reset every second. I could still age, and I retained my memories of each reset. That was good, I wouldn't want to lose such a useful power.

I decided to test several of the powers I created further. I discovered my Barriers had a range of up to ten feet from me in all directions, and moved along that edge if I tried to push them further. Telekinesis, I still could only target three things at once and the weight limit didn't change. Nothing different with my Shapeshifting, I could Teleport objects without going along with them if I wanted, nothing different about my Healing. My Pocket Dimension was interesting, if I wasn't interacting with it time stopped inside that closet. Food didn't spoil, things didn't fall, timers didn't tick forwards, stuff like that. I didn't find any more Parahumans on my walk, so I headed to the boardwalk, on the way turning back to my civilian form.

The boardwalk was just a tourist area. People could go and visit the PRT building, several shops, a lot of different restaurants, arcades, hotels, etc. I didn't stay long, it was already nearing night when came over, but I did enjoy walking through the PRT without them knowing about me having powers. That took the rest of the day, and I soon found a secluded spot to Teleport back to my tower after getting lunch from a less high-end area. My room was nice, if a bit bare. The rest of my tower was similar, mostly because I had nothing to decorate it with. Very soon after, I was asleep again.

XXXXX

When I woke up, I quickly got dressed, then Teleported near my work. Finishing my shift, I was off for the rest of the day. I thought about what I wanted to spend my charges on. Three were immediately sent into Telekinesis, bringing it up to level 11. The upgrade this time was enormous, I could lift and move the entirety of the oil rig in the bay, or up to twenty-four tank sized targets. The speed of movement was now just faster than the speed of sound, and my range was a mile in all directions, or up to ten in a single direction if I wanted to focus hard enough in that direction to lose every other. I put a point into Teleportation, allowing for remote Teleportation and Teleporting of groups up to thirty large at its new rating of 7.

My next power is a 'Buff/Debuff' rated at 3. Right now, I can just give a minor increase or decrease in a target's abilities or resistances for five minutes. But the effect doesn't stack. For example, I can use the power on a targets fire resistance, and it will change the effectiveness of fire on that target by 25%. It doesn't sound like much at first, but in a Cape fight it could do a lot to change the tide of battle. It will be helpful tonight, too. Lung does use a lot of fire. My last five charges were saved for if they were necessary later.

For the rest of the day, went to the hospital to offer my services where I could. I wasn't as good as Panacea, but I was welcome to help. They had me test on a few willing volunteers, it wouldn't do for them to just accept help, and with Parahuman powers there was a very real chance of causing cancer due to regeneration mostly done by speeding up cell division a lot of the time. This is partly where the increased hunger comes from, the energy needed for the process coming from the same place as we get it from to function. I know that's not how my way works, but they still needed to test it.

XXXXX

The first I noticed of Taylor's fight with Lung, was the giant explosion of fire. I Teleported straight there, having been in my Cape form along with the outfit while waiting.

"How do you do, raging Dragon and controlling Bug?" I asked them both. That created a lull in their fight, which I took ruthless advantage of to trap Lung in a Telekinetic bubble. He wouldn't be getting out of that without ramping up quite a bit, and he would be crushed before he could. I took a look at Taylor, who seemed to be a bit burned. That was quickly taken care of with Healing, including the singed hair.

"Go on, miss Bug. Someone is on their way to handle him, and I don't think you want to be here if he escapes." I told her. She did as I recommended, looking scared. She threw a 'thank you' over her shoulder as she left. Now, I knew he wouldn't escape but she didn't, and I don't think she had wanted to make a bad impression on her first night out in cannon. While she was still running, I extracted the venoms present in his bloodstream. Dam. I just realized I could have copied her power. Nothing I can do about it now.

Apparently, several things that went different from the cannon stopped the Undersiders from being the first to arrive, instead Armsmaster arrived soon after Taylor left. Of course, that might be due to the flames Lung was throwing around that I directed upwards to act as flares.

"Well met, Armsmaster. If you would like to take this Dragon of Rage into a cage for him, I would suggest using something you undoubtedly have on you that is strong enough to put him to sleep. Or, if you prefer, I could put him in his cage and then you may put him to sleep." Armsmaster looked at me rather oddly, and after staling for a second while taking in the differences between most people and this preset, still answered me.

"The first option is preferable." I nodded, and arrested the movement of Lung's limbs. Armsmaster walked over and stabbed his Halberd into Lung. He did something which injected whatever tranquilizer that he used for brutes to get the stronger ones ready for transport. Lung visibly tried to fight off chemical, but it was ultimately futile. I copied both of their powers, like usual not taking the shard they both had with them. For obvious reasons, I didn't get Lung's main power, however it did increase the effectiveness of my Shapeshift to a level 6. Tinker powers shouldn't ever really be affected in the same way, due to them mostly working by creating blueprints, and so I just acquired a copy of his power.

To mess with him, I Teleported us all, including his bike, just in front of the PRT building on the boardwalk. After a moment of disorientation, he figures out where he is and calls someone for a vehicle built for Brutes, to bring Lung to wherever they take them. By the time Armsmaster had turned to look at me, I was gone. I had no control over Lung anymore, he was out of my range. I heard the truck noticed the vehicle arrive soon afterwards. I left a note with a somewhat cryptic message as well.

' _The Wizard Raistlin captured the Dragon of Rage, assisted by the Controller of Bugs._

 _With the Dragon taken to his cage by the Master of Arms, he must be harmless. This is far from truth._

 _Be wary of his subordinates, the Dead Demon of Ash and the Mad Bomber._

 _As they attempt to release the Dragon from his cage, for their success the Heroes must be distracted._

 _Those called Villains would seek to stop this, if they knew of the toll of letting it go._

 _However, the future is ever in flux, and prophecy can never be clear. The Path to Victory was twisted._

 _If Butterflies can cause tornadoes, what happens with the introduction of an unknown element?'_

This message is very much misleading, if read as in any other way than literal. Several sentences exuberate the problem, making it so they seem to have to look for hidden meanings, which there can be, but aren't actually meant to be read in that manner. Some lines would make them doubt their own precogs results, so they won't even be able to tell if they have the correct meaning. I realized the time. I didn't have long before whatever charges I had left over were lost. One was used to stop the need for sleep, another countering the normal side effects that would cause, and yet another for eidetic memory. That left two, all of which were used on the Pyrokinesis I obtained from Lung, adding more elements for me to control. The elements were wind and earth. Water will be copied shortly from Leviathan.

 **XXXXX**

 **Okay, this is the next story idea I have started. This one will likely be continued, actually, because of the general reaction to the idea of Parahumans saying their powers have anything to do with magic, I think I can keep most of the reactions in character. Please note, even then, I don't think I will have it totally accurate but I shouldn't have to do much more than look at what is happening based off a timeline that I can find and a general overview of their personalities. The copying of shard powers isn't going to be much of a thing compared to what you might see in other stories with the same powerset. A running index of the powers Raistlin has created with PM will be shown at the end of each chapter, sorted by their level and with a short description of the power itself below the name. Also, if anyone wants to help me with creating PHO chapters, that would be greatly appreciated, I have no experience with such a thing. I've heard it can be difficult at the best of times.**

 **XXXXX**

Raistlin's Created Powers

Telekinesis, Level 11

Move up to 24 targets the size of a tank, or one up to the weight of a large skyscraper, supertanker, or an entire oil rig. Can fake flight just faster than the speed of sound. Precision on the level of separating different liquids in a single mixture.

Elementalism, Level 11

Control of the elements of fire, earth, and wind strong enough to harm an Endbringer.

Illusion, Level 8

Can create Illusions that effect all five senses. Can fake being physical, but cannot harm anyone caught inside. Range is a fifty feet squared cube, or ten individual targets.

Item Creation, Level 7

Can create large amounts of complex, real materials, small amounts of simple, fictional materials, in a fifty foot radius.

Pocket Dimension, Level 7

House sized room he can store things in. Time is stopped when he isn't using the power to take things out of put them in. Himself and others can live in the space without adverse effects.

Teleportation, Level 7

Can teleport line of sight or anywhere he can vaguely visualize. Can teleport remotely and with groups up to thirty large.

Shapeshift, Level 6

Change between any form he wishes between the size of a large dog and a horse. Two presets in the form of an utterly average person you'd see on the street, and a carbon copy of Raistlin.

Healing, Level 5

Applies the concept of 'Health' to a target, max of 5. Can heal up to lost limbs and concussions. Cool-down of twelve minutes, increasing linearly with each additional target.

Barriers, Level 3

Slow moving, can block a few bullets.

Buff/Debuff, Level 3

He can increase or decrease the abilities or resistances of a target for up to five minutes. Does not stack.

Telepathy, Level 3

A power that he can turn on/off. Gives a basic feel for a target's emotions.

Noctis, Level 2

He no longer needs sleep, and suffers no adverse side effects from going without. Has eidetic memory.


	7. Magus, the Tinker

Magus, theTinker

And so, I wake up in a new world. In a very _bad_ place, with little more to start with than a minor control over the elements. Now I have to hope my Luck is up to the task of getting me out safely.

 **And yet another one of these. And I still have more. This idea came about thinking of the most** _ **interesting**_ **description an MC might give about their powers, looked at the CYOA, and built off that. I'm also on a bit of a Gamer kick at the moment, so that might have influenced things a bit. Anyway, for those of you who** _ **like**_ **what I write for some reason, enjoy!**

Chapter 1

As is the time-honored tradition of all dimensional travelers with a Gamer power, I woke up in an abandoned building with a screen in front of my face, swearing quietly under my breath in fear after reading. Reason being? THIS.

 **Welcome, Gamer, to the city of Ellisburg, home to the King of Goblins.**

My next course of action is obviously to find a way out of here, starting with checking what I could do now. The answer is rather disappointing.

 **James Greenwood**  
 **Level 1 (0/100)**

 **HP: 50**  
 **MP: 100**  
 **SP: 100**

 **Physical: 10**  
 **Mental: 10**  
 **Magic: 5**  
 **Luck: 5**

 **Hermetic Arts**  
 **Creo: Creation or Healing techniques (1)**

 **Intellego: Personal Perception techniques** **(1)**

 **Muto: Transformation techniques, changing something in ways it cannot naturally** **(1)**

 **Perdo: Destruction or Deterioration techniques** **(1)**

 **Rego: Control techniques, manipulation of something possible for it naturally** **(1)**

 **Animal: Form for Control over animals** **(1)**

 **Auram: Form for Control over air and lightning** **(1)**

 **Aquam: Form for Control over water** **(1)**

 **Corpus: Form for Control over the human body** **(1)**

 **Herbam: Form for Control over plants and their products (1)**

 **Ignem: Form for Control over fire (1)**

 **Imaginem: Form for Control over the senses (1)**

 **Mentem: Form for Control over the human mind, including the perception of the senses (1)**

 **Terram: Form for Control over earth and other non-living solids (1)**

 **Vim: Form for Control over pure magic (1)**

Gathering all of that, I thought over what I knew. The ARS Magica system puts the control over any magic into each individual Art. A spell is created with at least one technique and one form, with others also being used if needed to give the spell additional effects to do what you want it to, called requisites. For example, you could use Creo Ignem to create fire, but you would need a Rego requisite to control the fire.

On the physical side of things, I need to consider if I'll fight with weapons. In the long term, it seems to be better for me to learn martial arts instead. Any weapon I use will eventually be weaker than my own hands, simply due to my strength and durability increasing as my stats go up, while any weapon I make will not. Besides that, with magic I have both long-range options and the possibility of turning my nails into claws, or pulling a Wolverine, or even turning my arms into blades. The nails/claws sound more practical than the others, so I think that's what I'll go for.

Looking over the spells I have in the Archive, I considered the difference between the Magic available to me now and what it would have been if I was even somewhat restricted with game balance. In a game you tend In a game you tend to have one spell do one thing, even if it should be able to do more. I don't know much about how it worked in the actual game, but in most games a spell like Muto Corpus would only transform me into a specific animal. Not so much here. Even if I am not strong enough yet, that same spell here allows me to do anything from create those claws, transform into any animal, or do the same to others, depending on how much magic I put into the spell and what I intend to do with the spell.

Just to get a baseline on what I can do for now, I cast two spells. One was the simplest fire I could make, just a candle flame, Creo Ignem, that cost 5 MP per second. The other was as basic a version I could make of the claw spell, Muto Corpus this time, that cost a flat 15 MP all at once. The result was sharp, but still just made out of the same material as normal nails. I waited for all of the MP I spent to regenerate before going on to anything else.

Something I can do next is create a sort of training dummy, for my martial arts. Now, I can either use Creo to form it out of nothing with whatever material I want, or I can transform the concrete around me into the shape of one. Really, unless I was just standing on clouds, my best option will always be to transform the ground around me into what I need. Creo constructs will eventually fade away, while Muto is just the flat cost of transformation and will stay until destroyed.

Casting the spell, using Muto Terram, I created what was basically a pillar of concrete with other poles sticking out of it. It is very simplistic, but I only need something to practice attacking with my hands and claws. The spell also increased the level of my Magic, along with the Muto and Terram arts.

The first thing I tried was to just scrape my claws against the pillar slightly, so I know how much it'll be affected. The answer is not much. It seems my durability is enough not to be harmed with my own attack, though I do feel a pull on the claw when I try. Next, I tried punching. That didn't turn out so well, given my own claws stabbed me when I hit it. So, my durability didn't stop me from hurting myself being an idiot. Good to know.

Looks like if and when I do fight with the claws, I'll either have to turn them back into normal nails to punch, not a very effective use of magic, or fight open handed. Better to fight open handed than to waste so much magic every time I go to punch a person. Thinking about the types of creatures that fight with claws, my mind shot straight to tigers. More specifically, I thought of legends and myths of tigers. It's kind of funny, but while lions are known as the 'king of beasts' I can remember more legends about tigers than lions. None-the-less, tigers are big cats, and thus lunge at their targets. Following that line of thought, I did the same. That action gave me three skills.

 **Hand to Hand skill created**

 **Hand to Hand Lv1: Gamer has started on the path to being an unarmed fighter. +10% damage when fighting without the use of outside weapons.**

 **Cat Mimicry fighting style created**

 **Cat Mimicry Lv1: Gamer has created a fighting style based around mimicking the movement and natural weapons of cats. +5% damage with claws, +5% increased stealth.**

 **Lunge skill created**

 **Lunge Lv1: Gamer has created a skill to close the distance with enemies. Gamer can jump towards a target with half of his max running speed from a standstill. Cost 20 SP.**

All of the skills were decent, and they were only level 1. I don't know what the max level is for each of them, or if they even have one, but they're going to be very useful now and in the future. Disregarding that for now, I lunged at and attacked the pillar until it was destroyed. Considering the description of Charles Atlas Superpowers allows one to learn how to break through concrete with the right training and the Hand to Hand Fighting skill's damage increase percentage, that didn't take long.

Going to leave the building, I checked the options menu for certain settings that should be there. The main one I was looking for is notifications for during combat, which I wanted to turn off. Sure, that meant that after combat stopped, I could be flooded with notifications, but that was better than having them interrupt during a fight.

After leaving the building I was in, I found a goblin in just twenty seconds of walking. Remembering that I'm the Gamer, I threw out an instinctive Observe. A moment later, I felt rather silly, nothing in the power description said that was possible. And then I got the notification.

 **New skill Observe has been created. Normally, this would not be possible with just this system. Due to two factors, it was allowed. The first is the presence of magic, especially magic specifically used for perception and understanding. While it is not a spell and doesn't use magic, the framework is there. The second is the part of the Gamer system that translates reality, for you, into an RPG.**

 **Basic Goblin: monster (alien), E-Class**

 **A basic goblin created by Nilbog, which is classified as an alien due to being created from a template by a Biotinker, which was taken from another world.**

Huh. That's interesting. I wonder what that will do with my wildcard power? Either way, is should help somewhat. Readying myself for combat, I lunged out of position to attack the goblin. It was... disappointing. Given I hadn't turned my claws back into nails yet, I managed to rip the goblins throat out of its neck. That, of course, killed it instantly. The action gave me the Rip skill, to rip pieces out of the target. The goblin dropped $10 and a chipped, almost broken sword.

Good to see that aspect of the Gamer is working. Even if I do have a more than likely chance to get useless drops from monsters, anything I kill is going to drop money, and seemingly whatever it has on hand, given that sword was in its hand before I killed it. Money's always useful, and occasionally I will get useful drops. I do have a question though, why the throat? I mean, sure, it was effective, but that wasn't where I was aiming. Because it is classified as an alien? It would make sense. I'm going to assume that, given this is probably the lowest class of enemy at E, E-class enemies give 15 exp as this one did, and higher classes give more. More exp, more money, and better items.

Either way, there's no point in sticking around for longer than I have to. This area may count as something like a dungeon, with all the worthless enemies that I can kill for loot and experience, but I can always get quests for that sort of thing. Sure, I won't be able to just kill people, but I'll still get more experience in the long run. And for now, that meant I had to escape Ellisburg.

 **Mandatory Quest Created: Escape Ellisburg! C-Class**

 **The Gamer wishes to leave the goblin infested city for elsewhere. Going in any direction will allow you outside, but be careful of the protections placed around the city by the Protectorate. Be ever wary of what lurks in the streets where men cannot see. No time limit.**

 **Success: 5000 exp, Transform Self- Tiger spellbook, Destroy Goblin spellbook, $10,000**  
 **Failure: Death**

Well then. A mandatory quest with decent rewards and a horrible fail consequence. It's also the only fail condition. The only choice is to move onwards. Doing so, and sneaking around the place to try not to get caught unaware, I found my next goblin. Now, I can either sneak past, or kill it. Considering it's another Basic Goblin, I should be able to rip out its throat to kill it instantly. But that isn't the only problem. There's also two other Basic Goblins, and one new goblin that I observed from my hiding spot.

 **Goblin: monster (alien) D-Class**

 **A normal goblin. These are a bit stronger and smarter than the average person, and lead small groups of their weaker brethren. Not too difficult** **individually** **for someone with a decent** **training, however they have some knowledge of tactics and know how to command the groups of basic goblins they lead enough to generally require multiple trained soldiers fighting together.** **In close combat, anyway.**

That will make this difficult, but not impossible. First things first, I need to kill the weaker ones quickly before they all gang up on me. That would be... not an almost certain death scenario, but it wouldn't be fun for me. Waiting for one of the goblins to walk past the alleyway I was hidden in didn't take long, and when they walked past my hand darted out to grab its throat. Instead of ripping it out, I crushed it to make sure it couldn't alert the others. Watching its corpse dissolve in front of me, I felt nothing. These were creatures created by a madman, they had no morals and wouldn't care about killing people, so I felt nothing over its death.

Ok, there still the other two basic, as well as the leader. The dead goblin won't stay unnoticed for long, so I need to be quick. Looking to the wall next to me, I tried to see if my claws would help me climb. They did, I got the skill for it, and I went to hide in another alley. After some more waiting, I Lunged out of my hiding spot and grabbed the throat of the next goblin on the way to the next spot. Crushing the throat of this one as well, I decided to test if I could sneak behind one of them without alerting it. That didn't work, and both of them noticed me. Abandoning stealth, I simply shoved my arm through the weaker one's chest and ripped it back out before it could hit me.

Now alone with the regular goblin, I waited for it to strike first. It did so quickly, with a growl, and I dodged the clumsy strike. Even as new as I am to martial arts, I could tell it had absolutely no training- and instinct told me to dodge, as this goblin swung at me with an axe. I couldn't dodge completely, and thus got clipped on the shoulder. Grabbing the arm with the axe, I ripped it off the rest of the goblins body and threw it away. I guess that's what it meant when it said this type of goblin had some knowledge of tactics.

Previously, this goblin was sitting on the ground, I assume on top of the axe, and I couldn't see it. When the other goblin noticed me, it must have hidden the weapon from my sight, to have me underestimate it. Whether it really is that bad at attacking with fists or not, it helped me think it weaker than it was, having me let my guard down some, which it took advantage of. Going and racking my claws through its face finished it off, and I sat down to wait for my regeneration to heal me. Now that combat is over, I looked over my notifications.

 **Stealth skill created**

 **Crush skill created**

 **Climbing skill created**

 **Sense Danger skill created**

 **Hand to Hand leveled up to 8**

 **Cat Mimicry leveled up to 9**

 **Lunge leveled up to 5**

 **Stealth leveled up to 3**

 **Rip leveled up to 6**

 **Crush leveled up to 2**

 **Climbing leveled up to 2**

 **Physical** **increased to 11**

 **You have leveled up to 2**

 **James Greenwood**  
 **level 2 (0/200)**

 **HP: 55**  
 **MP: 120**  
 **SP: 110**

Well, that's a lot of skill level ups. But I guess that makes sense, using so many low leveled skills in combat. Now, to continue the quest. Now, at this point I have several options. I could run around, killing things until I reach an exit. I could just try to kill everything in this city. Neither are very good options. The last option is I continue in the direction I have been, killing only the things in my path. The quest gives me enough experience to level up seven times, currently. As I kill things, that will give more exp, so that number will change by the time this quest is finished. It's still a good amount of experience, however, so the third option is the way to go. All I do now is just walk.

XXXXX

By now, I'd estimate I'm almost halfway to escape. I've wandered across five of those groups of goblins. For the most part, they were the same leader and two-three basic, each of them fighting with either sword, axe, or fists. However, the fifth group had a fourth basic that had a bow, for some reason.

Using the same tactics as with the first group, none of them were alerted to my presence before they were all killed. All that exp had me reach level three. Currently, I am staring at the goblin in front of me.

 **Fire rep. Goblin: monster (alien) C-Class**

 **A goblin created by the biotinker Nilbog, rather uncreatively named, which is about as strong as a normal goblin. However, these have the special ability of replicating with fire, through the process… well, there isn't actually a description for it in English, so let's just say it does.**

It looked mostly normal, insomuch as these goblins did in the first place, except for portions of its skin that were partially melted. Taking a look around the area, I didn't see any other goblins, so I dropped down on this one as well.

And that's when it all went to shit.

 **XXXXX**

 **And I'm going to end it here.** **I'm sorry for not posting anything sooner, but I just kept getting new ideas, losing** **interest, and just reading more fanfiction than I could make.** **The choices are at the very bottom, if you want to see them.**

 **Okay, more on this Gamer system.** **It won't be all in your face like I've seen with some, I.e** **where every attack is shown the damage to health and such, but it will be there. It will also be a bit more realistic than some. The translation of reality will occure, so the MC will always have a base damage for any attack, but taking an enemy's head off with damage them more than giving them a scratch.**

 **The class system, to start with, goes from E-SS. SS is the level of Scion, multiversal** **end-world scenarios. S is a single world ending scenario, like certain Endbringers** **if they went all out. A is Leviathan sinking Japan or the destruction of several cities. B is the destruction of half or an entire city, like a fully a ramped up** **Lung. C is most Parahumans with obviously above-peak human abilities. D is quite a bit better than average to slightly superhuman, and the realm of most Thinkers and trained soldiers. E is anything average or less.**

 **The large gap between ranks is intentional, and more of a generalization** **than a rule.** **Accord, for example, would be E or D if confronted without given time to** **plan, and S if left alone** **for a week with enough information.** **James is currently C, with the potential for S, but nothing beyond that.** **After all, he has no way to travel through dimensions.** **Nilbog is known as B, but can, at most, be considered A.**

 **Those goblins are particularly weak examples** **of their classes, and thus give less experience than they should.** **E is normally 20, D normally 60, etc.**

 **That Observation skill wouldn't normally be possible, except it was tried with an (alien) before anything else. Knowledge is power, and power can help kill things. If he had tried it first with anything else it wouldn't have worked, even for these goblins.** **And yes, it will almost always be about that vague.**

 **And now for the CYOA choices.**

Worm CYOA V3  
Standard Mode: 0  
Victory Conditions +2

Apprentice –3  
Hermetic Magic [Archive]  
Wildcard –1  
Alien Slayer (3)  
The Gamer -4

Charles Atlas Superpowers –1  
Man of Mystery –1  
Wanted +1  
Local PRT.  
Without a Map +2  
Ellisburg

 **And there it is, the product of about six days work after months of nothing. Well, goodbye, and lets hope I can post again before waiting half a year.**


	8. A Gaming Conception

A Gaming Conception

When I went to sleep, I didn't expect to be thrown into someone's Worm CYOA. I recognized it as the third version, but I don't remember making this one personally. But there is no time for that. If I hesitate I will age, if I retreat I will die.

 **And yet another idea. The quote has no actual meaning for the story at this point in time, just the situation he finds himself in. With that said, let us begin!**

Chapter 1

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a floating box in blue. Normally I would think I was hallucinating, but something about that thought felt wrong. I KNEW that all of this was real.

 **[Welcome to your new world, and the Game of life you play within it. You have no time for a real overview of anything. Your tutorial will be war, your reward is survival. If you hesitate you will age, if you retreat you will die.]**

 **[Name: ? (Lv1)**

 **Title: none**

 **HP: 100**

 **Str: 10**

 **End: 10**

 **Dex: 10**

 **Int: 10**

 **Wis: 10**

 **Luk: 100]**

 **[Skills:**

 **Gamers Body: allows you to live as a Game character**

 **Gamers Mind: allows you to not be crippled by intense emotions and the ability to see System screens**

 **Charles Atlas Superpowers: gives peak human stats in physical and mental attributes, and enhanced skill mastery… as long as you train correctly**

 **Man of Mystery: makes it almost impossible for your identities to be connected with out your consent and you actions unable to be predicted through supernatural means.**

 **Special Snowflake: you are the only 'you' to exist. Your power(s) cannot be copied through any means**

 **Plot Armor: your luck is ungodly, so long as it contributes to your continued survival]**

I finished the giant info dump, and not a moment too soon. I really didn't have time to do anything, only recognizing the goblin a moment before it went to attack me. Scrambling to dodge out of the way, I moved faster than I expected. This was obviously due to my boosted stats, but I could tell it would take some time to get used to. While it was off balance, having thrown all its strength into that swing and not meeting the resistance it expected, I punched it. It seemed to be the lowest level of enemy I would find here, so my attack took out half of its health, and another killed it. Five experience for the kill, out of the 150 I need to level up. For drops, I got a few dollars and the rather battered and rusty sword it used. And then I heard a ping.

 **[New Skill created**

 **Unarmed Combat Mastery (Lv1 7%): your ability in hand to hand combat, this regulates your skill when attacking without a weapon. 3% when attacking without a weapon]**

New skills are always helpful, especially ones for increased damage. Swinging around the sword got me a similar skill for swords in general, which will help me more here. Choosing a single direction, I began to walk. Wandering in every direction would only serve to backtrack, and I had no interest in staying longer than I had to. That got me a quest to escape, reward of 6,000 XP and a random skill. I came across a couple more of those goblins as I walked. These got progressively easier as I gained more experience in killing them. All the items dropped, unless they were better than what I already had, were put into the inventory.

Interestingly, the goblins also had random drops other than what they had on hand. Weapons and armor, those only dropped on enemies that were carrying them before their deaths. I picked up several chunks of metal of some kind, leather, mushrooms, and other random items. My inventory didn't have a limit to what I could carry, so I just grabbed it all.

Killing so many of them, or I assume the exertion of the act, got me a point in strength. I didn't get any other increases, which was understandable. I didn't really need any speed to chop off their individual heads, I didn't get hit any and it didn't take much to kill them, there was no real need for thinking about what I'm doing, given the simplicity.

Actually, intelligence and wisdom don't seem like the stats that I would put too many points into. I had no magic to be affected by them, and as far as I know, I've already gotten to the point where increasing those stats don't help much for anything other than magic. And there is a point in most games where those stats increasing doesn't help much for anything other than magic.

Hearing a clank, I turned around to see another goblin already attacking. I did what I could to dodge, but it didn't work completely. The blade created a long gash, but didn't bleed thanks to Gamers Body. It did take a couple of healt points. Taking its head and killing it, while putting its items into the inventory, I realized I needed to have a way of detecting enemies like that. I still remember the description of the Atlas perk, and the echolocation it talked about.

All I needed to do is make a sound, and listen for the sound bouncing off objects. Simple in theory, probably not so much in reality. I tried it anyway. Clicking my tongue and listening, that's all I did for the next minute. I did, eventually, get the skill for it.

 **[New Skill created**

 **Echolocation (Lv1 0%): the ability to hear sound waves bouncing off objects, and creating a mental map of the area around you through those sounds]**

This is going to be very useful. Now, I shouldn't have goblins ambushing me like that one did. I was proven wrong a moment later, when I tried the skill and discovered that I couldn't even make sense of what I 'saw' through it just yet. But I continued at it, knowing the value of the skill if I could level it up enough. All I had to do is walk around and listen to the sounds made by any action.

I continued walking along, thinking and making sounds that got progressively outside the hearing range of an average human, but I could hear just fine. I had encountered five goblins in as many minutes, lower than I thought, given the reputation of this city. I knew that had to be my luck coming into play, but it still seemed strange to me. The main advantage these creatures had was mostly in numbers, given an entire cities' worth of people were turned into monsters.

Due to my constant use of the skill, **[Echolocation]** leveled up quickly enough that, by the time I found the next goblin in my path, I could actually use the 'images' it showed me to see instead of my eyes. This time, I found a group of three goblins rather than the lone ones I had been fighting so far. As with the rest, I couldn't seem to sneak up on them, so I just walked to them.

As with the rest of their kind, they rushed at me swinging their swords, and- was that a spear?! Where did it even find such a thing? They seemed to have some concept of teamwork, and quickly surrounded me after I dodged their first strikes. This... could be a problem. When one of them went to swing at me, another tried to make me unable to dodge, having its weapon positioned to hit me if I went in that direction. **[Echolocation]** was a great help, at one point the goblin with the spear tried to stab me in the head, and the ability to see it made it so I could dodge enough to only get a scratch just above my ear instead of being skewered.

After that, I stopped being so cocky, quickly learning just how dangerous these creatures were that they were left alone, other than Cauldron and Contessa plots. What they lacked in skill, they more than made up for in teamwork, and given their numbers, it was a death sentence for most people other than some high-level Capes.

Now that I was actually thinking about the danger, I watched as the creatures moved and what I could tell from their movements, where they were going to attack. This allowed me, in conjunction with **[Echolocation]** , to read their movements somewhat and dodge before they attacked, and out of the way of the attacks from the others at the same time. I ignored the pop-ups, which turned transparent shortly after, and continued the fight.

Being able to tell where my enemies where going to be, even a little bit, helped immensely. I soon took the head of one of the swords wielding goblins, disrupting the others and making them far easier to kill as well. Sitting down on the ground after finishing, I took what these goblins dropped and looked to the sky. Waving at the drone in the sky, I turned towards the notifications I got during the course of the fight.

 **[New Skills created**

 **Cutting Resistance (2%): your resistance to cutting damage that gets through your Endurance stat. Caps at 90%**

 **Eye of the Mind (True) (Lv1 13%): your ability to predict how people will act in a fight, born through battle.**

 **Evasion (Lv1 24%): your ability to dodge attacks directed at you.]**

 **[New Title unlocked**

 **Army of One: in battle, numbers mean little to you. As long as you can defeat each opponent individually, and have the energy to last that long, you will find facing groups of enemies no more difficult than fighting each one back to back.]**

And that Title was quickly equipped. Given my Luck is supposed to be something of a tool to help me survive, I am likely to stumble across more and larger groups of goblins. There seem to be several references to Fate/Stay Night, actually. **[Eye of the Mind (True)]** is a rather obvious example, but my Luck stat is another. In that case, Luck is a person's chance of having unusual things happen to them. Low rank of that stat is the problem, unusual happenings without Luck increasing their chances of getting out alive. And mine is similar, being an increased Luck for anything that will help me survive. And given my circumstances, it will be doing all it can to make me stronger.

After that battle, the next were much easier. It was rather rare, then, to find goblins wandering alone, and those that were, were stronger and gave more XP than the normal ones. It was when I started finding groups of enemies in the tens that I much difficulty. **[Army of One]** says fighting groups of enemies will be no more difficult than one by one, but that isn't entirely accurate. It helps, it really does, but it cannot change the fact that I am fighting multiple enemies, and each one of them can attack whenever they want, including at the same time.

Regardless of that, I alternated using either spear or sword to attack, often holding a shield I took from another goblin to defend myself with. That got me up to levels 7, 8, and 5 in their respective mastery skills. Occasional use of two swords or spears at the same time gave me the **[Dual Wielder]** skill. The skill is, like other mastery skills, a combination of my skill with multiple weapons and a damage modifier of the same. Unlike the other mastery skill, it is not tied to a specific weapon type, but weapons in general, as long as I am using more than one of them at the same time.

Sighting another group of goblins, I decided, in a fit of whimsy, to sneak up on them. It hasn't worked before, but I decided to try again. But first, I would do all I could to make it harder to detect me. Focusing on my lungs and heart, I tried my best to slow both of them. Going slow and being careful of how I stepped, I continued on to them. I managed to get close, right behind one of them, and-

A notification from the system popped up, and I stabbed at it. I killed the goblin in front of me, struck through the heart, and into the battle I went. After killing all of these goblins, I took a look at what my power decided would be important enough to notify me about right then.

 **[New Skills created**

 **Stealth (Lv1 1%): your ability to go without notice when trying not to be found.**

 **Bodily Functions Manipulation (Lv1 2%): your ability to control the different functions your body naturally has.]**

Okay, I can see the use in these. I would have preferred getting the message after finishing the battle, however.

 **[Affirmative]**

Huh. I didn't know it could take requests like that, but it seems like it should have been obvious. Continuing on, the **[Bodily Functions Manipulation]** seems to be referencing to the control over your metabolism that **[Charles Atlas Superpowers]** used as an example of something the CYOA perk said I could learn with the right training. The Gamer power obviously speed that up, and I assume my Luck helped with that as well.

Things continued in that manner for the next two hours. The stealthier aspects of my skills were somewhat neglected for the more combat oriented. Indeed, the BFM skill evolved, which they can apparently do after reaching a level threshold specific to that skill, turning it into **[Self Manipulation]**. The original skill was rather limited in its functions, even if they were very useful, so its threshold was lower than it could have been. At this level, I can increase the growth of my hair and such, even moving it to a degree, like a muscle. It took some time to make it grow to a length that would be useful, but I didn't much care how 'girly' it would make me look, and I had plenty of edible food dropped from goblins and the ability to control my metabolism.

Trying to control several groups of my hair at the same time, because the control over it reminded me of something I've read before where the character in question used their hair to hold and use many weapons at the same time, gave me the **[Multitasking]** skill. I couldn't control my hair enough to be able to use it like that yet, and so far I could only keep track of two similar trains of thought at the same time, so it wasn't something I could do right now, but I would soon.

Still, the now almost constant slaughter of goblins got me to level twelve, and distinctly superhuman in all physical stats, enough that my hair is actually strong enough that I could use it as another arm if I could control it well enough. Going by the pattern of the level ups so far, I can safely assume that the equation for XP needed is 150x, where x is my current level. That was rather obvious, given it's been exactly that so far, or similar enough that I haven't been able to think of any other equation that would fit.

I am going for a fairly balanced build, at least on the physical side given what I've already said on the mental side, with a slight focus on speed. I think it is a rather smart choice, all these stats are important, but when fighting enemies with such varied skillsets like Capes, I think the best decision is to just not be there when they attack. Given what I know about guns, my endurance might be enough that the lowest calibers used in a world like this might do ten or so damage before my **[Piercing Resistance]** is applied, I really don't want to test it.

Finally catching sight of the wall in front of me, between a couple buildings, I cursed and praised my Luck. There should be no reason it takes more than two hours to reach the edge of this city. I gained so many new skills, but I had to fight So! Many! Goblins! But, other than that, I started making a plan. I have no identification, so there's no way to pretend to have existed in this world before being dropped into Ellisburg. I don't have any skill for lying, and even if I gain one it will be at the lowest level. While I should be able to remove some of the signs of lying with **[Self Manipulation]** , I don't know how to recreate the signs for truth.

And I have no doubt that will be necessary. There is no chance the PRT would leave a dangerous, S-Class threat that took over a city unmonitored. There was that drone that I waved at, after all. And I am someone who walked out of a city that teams of Parahumans and trained soldiers were slaughtered in, with only two people who survived. I am likely to be given a face-to-face meeting with Alexandria, after as thorough testing as they can put me through, if they don't just kill me immediately. Killing me is unlikely, however, due to both my Luck and Cauldron's need for as many Parahumans as possible for the fight against Scion.

To continue my plan, I made it so my hair was colored blue and would grow that way, made my eyes yellow and able to see better, and changed the shape of my face. It might be basically cosplay, and I doubt the series actually exists in this world, but I thought it was appropriate. Besides, I was watching it before getting sent here, and I am no longer the same person as I was just three hours ago. And if the anime does exist, it'll be something of a reference to an amazing show.

 **[Would you like to change your name?**

 **Y/N]**

Chuckling a bit to myself, I clicked yes and typed in what I was to be known as, in this new world. As the doors opened, I took one last look at the floating blue screen, and walked in.

 **[Name: Rimuru Tempest (Lv12)**

 **Title: Army of One**

 **HP: 180**

 **Str: 19**

 **End: 18**

 **Dex: 21**

 **Int: 11**

 **Wis: 12**

 **Luk: 100**

 **Points to spend: 33]**

 **XXXXX**

 **And that's the end of the first chapter. I probably shouldn't be making so many of these new stories, even if most of them are likely to never be posted, but I just can't help myself. Now, as I've said above, most of these references mean nothing. I just like where they come from and decided they fit in some way. And I literally finished what I had available of the series he took his appearance from a couple hours before finishing this chapter. I'm going to chalk down that entire scene to that, a lack of sleep, and a couple of parallels my mind made between the two. And the design looks more unique than most I've seen in the Isekai genre, so I decided to use it.**

 **Just about all my choices for the CYOA are obvious from reading the story, so I am not going to put them below this Authors Note like I usually would. And since this story has the most references to other media than any others I've posted, I'm going to say here that I don't own anything except maybe the words I have put on the internet, and if anyone on this site says otherwise, I ask you to take a look at the URL.**


	9. AGC c2

A Gaming Conception

When I went to sleep, I didn't expect to be thrown into someone's Worm CYOA. I recognized it as the third version, but I don't remember making this one personally. But there is no time for that. If I hesitate I will age, if I retreat I will die.

 **And here's the second chapter. This is a story that I really like, so it should get at least a couple of chapters. But, regardless of that, it's time to continue the story.**

Chapter 2

I was right on the money with my guess. I have been told that the news of my existence has been leaked, the corruption Cauldron allowed working against them with the subject being something that cannot be Pathed, and thus they couldn't afford to be seen as child murderers when they cannot use Path to Victory to make them look better about the situation. Overconfidence and paranoia abound in worlds-wide conspiracies, to say nothing about my Luck. They probably Could spin it in a way that makes them look better, like say I am some kind of new goblin made by Nilbog, but my Luck held.

I had to take many, _many_ tests to make sure I wasn't infected by anything and such, but my powers meant that I couldn't really get sick or infected by anything unless it counted as some kind of disease, or something like that. Right now, I am waiting for someone to get back to me with forms for Wards membership. I do have the appearance of a 10/12-year-old, after all. And I'm not going to fight them, not in these circumstances, and not when I just walked out of the most dangerous city in the country as an unknown.

Surprisingly enough, I haven't been asked any questions as to my memories. I can't tell if they just assume that I am a Case 53, and thus it wouldn't make any difference, or a normal Cape that ran away and changed their appearance with the Self-Biokinesis they know I have. Either way, they didn't ask, and I gave them no reason to. They did ask how I got into the city, but I didn't know myself and told them so.

Besides, even if just sitting around for several days playing with my hair gets boring, it sure helped level up the relevant perks. They even allowed me to spar with one of the troopers yesterday. Sure, I wasn't allowed to kill him and thus didn't get XP from him, but I did get a quest to defeat him without killing. It only gave me a third of what it would have been, including material drops, but that was still more than anything I could have hoped for.

And I lost. These people are soldiers, specifically trained to fight people who may be faster, or stronger, or have superior firepower and range than they do. They aren't the peak of human potential, but they train to fight people like me, and I am only around a Brute 2-3. They may train to fight as a group, but they _can not_ slack off when training themselves, for it could mean their death, the death of their comrades, and the fall of their city. We see them, if we ever see them, fighting against the Main Character, which means they have to lose. Then there is Contessa, the 'You lose because I Said So' character of Worm, who supposedly ran a path to have normals always lose to Parahumans. She cannot Precog anything to do with me, so there was no interference to make sure I would win.

In Brockton Bay, the main setting, the Cape scene features monsters such as; a Literal Dragon who is also the Hulk, Vlad-The-Impaler-Turned-Medieval-Knightzi with infinite iron spikes, a Teleporting Serial Suicide Bomber, a Human/Wolf-Shaped Blender, and He Who Can Build **ANYTHING,** once. None of them have low ratings in their categories. The last one might be considered a joke by everyone, but if he wanted to, he could end the world within a day. Is it any wonder they lose with all that against them? And then, one of their own consultants is a bond villain with ambitions to take over the city. The only reason they still have the city either out of the control of villains or not destroyed is because they also fight most of the others or just stay out of things as often or more than they do the PRT and Protectorate.

Even then, I am glad for the XP from the escape quest, enough to give me another level. But the real gem of that quest was the random skill, in this case **[Blacksmithing]**. It is the skill of crafting things out of metal. But it makes no distinction between using a forge and otherwise. As long as I could manipulate the metal well enough to change it into something else, I could use the skill. And given my power seems to work more off of concepts than actual, human skills, as shown with the evolution of my body manipulation skills, I have high hopes for it.

That did little to mitigate my boredom, however. Even the requisite skill, **[Appraisal]** , that was exactly what it sounded like, didn't keep my boredom at bay for long. It is basically the Observe skill seen in most Gamer stories and even the original Web Novel. It is a requisite skill because, as a Blacksmith, I need to be able to tell the quality of the materials I use and the finished product.

In fact, I got so bored I started weaving with my hair. It didn't hurt any, and I could control the individual strands of hair while cutting them off from whatever point I wish. This gave me almost unparalleled control over what it looked like, unequalled save for maybe some interpretations of Parian. Or it would, if I had any actual knowledge of how to make it look how I wanted. As it was, what I had made was basically worthless scraps of differently colored cloth. The skill given, **[Weaving and Tailoring]** , leveled up very quickly, however, given that each strand of hair is being woven together individually. Controlling each of the strands, and so many of them, at the same time was what really leveled up those skills. As it is, I am confident in my ability to use four weapons at once.

I stopped my weaving when I heard a knock on the door. Opening it, I looked out to see a trooper holding the paperwork for, I assume, where I was to be stationed. "Here you go," the trooper said in an almost annoyingly cheerful tone. "After you've finished, there'll be someone else here to bring you to the next area."

Eyeing the sheets of paper I now held, I sighed and got on with it. The very first thing I saw told me what they thought of my circumstances, being the words 'Case 53'. Looking through and signing my new name in the required areas, I also filled out the other sections given, including some of what my powers were. What I put was what I could do in the most basic. 'Analysis and Listing of Attributes,' 'Subspace Storage,' and 'Self-Biokinesis.'

Given my speed and **[Multitasking]** , I could continue working on my weaving while filling out the paperwork. It went a bit slower, considering I couldn't use as many strands individually, but the paperwork was filled out quickly enough and I could use the extra strand that was now available.

XXXXX

A few hours later, I started moving around in the clothes I had just finished. Amazing what almost a day of practice can do, when you have the powers I do. Now I am almost a carbon copy of Rimuru from the anime, except I lack the mask, sword, and my hair reaches the floor. I could keep my hair to the same length as his, but that limits the range I can use my additional weapons with. And while I could just grow and cut my hair each time, that takes time I might not have in battle, and growing my hair takes mass from the rest of my body. If I lack some kind of buffer, which I eat food to store as, then the skill starts cutting into my health. And I don't think I have to say how dangerous that could be.

A knock on the door cut off my thoughts, and I walked over to open it. This time, it is a female trooper at the door. "Please hand me the paperwork." I did as she asked, and she left, coming back soon and without the paperwork. "Now, I am supposed to be bringing you to the testing room. Follow me."

The testing room, apparently number three, was a short distance from the room I had been given for the past few days. Considering the state of the building we're in, I'd take a guess and say that it isn't often occupied by very many people. This isn't a very nice place to be, so it does make sense. That meant that at least a few more people were relocated here, due to me.

The tester was pretty much the caricature of a scientist, brown hair, glasses, lab coat, but instead of a clipboard, he was stationed at a computer.

He looked up from his work as the woman next to me cleared her throat, "Mr. Pruce? This is the Parahuman I was asked to bring you."

He looked at me now. "Yes, thank you, Ms. Anthins. You may leave now."

She looked, or at least her body language given the helmet, a bit unsure. "But, sir..."

He glared a little at her. "Now, Ms. Anthins. He has been perfectly cooperative since he got here. And if nothing else, we have containment foam." She nodded and left the room. He turned to me again, "You say your name is Rimuru Tempest, correct?" When I nodded, he to another chair next to him and continued. "Please, sit. You wrote that one of your powers is 'Analysis and Listing of Attributes,' do you mind explaining further? We like knowing what Capes know they can do before testing, so we know where to start."

I brightened and nodded. "Sure! I can see floating blue screens that tell me things. They say my name, things like Str: 19, Dex: 21, Luk: 100, and skills like **[Blacksmithing** ]."

"Hmm, so this floating screen told you, your name is Rimuru Tempest? Never mind, you just said it did. Well, Subspace storage is rather obvious, but do you know what you can't do with it?"

"I can't put animals or people into it, but as long as I can pick something up and push it into the blue screens I can."

He typed that into the computer. "Now, as for your last power, what can you tell me about it? Other than being Biokinesis and limited to yourself, of course."

"I couldn't do much at first, but now I can control my hair, I even made my clothes out of it! I can change the color of my eyes as well. Oh, I can make myself heal faster, but that hurts sometimes unless I've eaten recently. And then I get hungry again."

More typing. "Alright, now we can begin the actual testing. We'll start with observing, as far as we can with the equipment we have here, just how strong you are. This machine here..."

XXXXX

"Now that we've finished the physical portion of your testing, I have some information to give you. I have been told that you are going to be working at Brockton Bay. I have also been permitted to tell you why. You see, years ago, an S-Class Parahuman who called himself Nilbog took over this city. His power was a type of Biokinesis, making him able to turn humans into those goblins you were fighting inside the walls. Dozens of Capes and many squads of PRT were sent to deal with it. Many of the Capes died, and only two of the non-powered soldiers `survived. Director Piggot, now head of the ENE PRT, was one of them. The other was Thomas Calvert, now retired and serving as a consultant. Both of them live in that city. The higher ups think it is for the best that you be placed people who can understand."

I slumped a bit at the memories that brought up, pulling my knees to my chest. I didn't really think about it while trying to escape the city, but the realization of what I had done came to me on the first night. They may not have been anymore, but those goblins I killed used to be human beings, once. And I didn't even think about it, didn't have time to think about it, because it was always one enemy after another, one battle to the next. I never even really had two minutes to just sit and think, I was just slaughtering everything in my path for nearly three hours.

And while that is a lot of dead bodies left behind, it's even more frightening to think that Nilbog just didn't care. He has an entire city of disposable minions, and those I killed barely made a dent. Even then, he could just recycle most, or even all of them. And that is why I didn't die. He just didn't care enough about those few deaths, even if they are his children, so I wasn't buried in enemies far stronger than I could deal with.

But regardless, that is still more corpses left in my path than I ever wanted. And humans, especially when we don't live in a death world like Worm, are raised to value human life. I was the same, and it was only instinct, knowing that it was kill or be killed, that kept me going. I started crying again, like I did on the first night. I had pushed these thoughts out of my mind after finally getting to sleep then, distracting myself with other things and forcing myself to go to sleep with my power immediately after getting into bed. And while I know that wasn't a healthy thing to do, I didn't know what I should do, what else I could do.

I felt some one hug me, then. Maybe my emotions regressed along with my body, maybe it was everything that had happened to me in the past five days. I don't know which it was, and I don't really care, either. All I wanted to do was accept the comfort given to me. And so, I hugged them back, even though my arms were too short reach all the way around, and cried into the shirt of the scientist holding me. It took a while, but I did eventually feel better, at least enough to stop crying and wipe my face.

Looking up at him, I gave a watery smile and asked many questions with one word, "Why?"

He gave his own, sad smile, and an answer to several. "I may be a scientist working for the PRT, the people who fight against Capes, and you may be a Cape yourself. But you are also a child. A child, who has no real idea of where he is or what he has been thrust into. A child who's first memories, here, are of fighting for his life against monsters in a body that is not the same as the one he used to have. And then after that, when he was put through almost every test that might tell them if they were going to be allowed to live... or if they were going to be executed for the possibility of unleashing a disease that could wipe out cities. A child with powers, that he used to keep himself alive, to kill creatures that were going to kill him. A child with no parents, no one to take care of him, no way to heal the trauma he went through to survive. A little boy, that reminds me of my son."

 **XXXXX**

 **And that's the chapter. A bit shorter than I normally would like, but there was no better place to stop that I could use. And basically none of that last scene in the chapter was planned, it took me completely by surprise. The chapter in general is also rather dark in places, which I didn't expect. I shed a few tears myself by the time I finished that last paragraph, and now I feel almost burnt out by all the emotion in it. I do, however, think that this chapter fits better with the source and the story itself than what I had originally planned, even if I have to alter a few things now to fit with the chapter. Oh, and don't expect a chapter for a while now, please. I'm going to have to get back in the mood for writing again, and that might take a while. I did write pretty much every word of both of these chapters on the same day, after all, and the emotion put into writing this one in particular didn't help.**

 **The scientist and PRT guard were meant to be, and in the case of the guard will continue to be, minor throwaway characters. For all intents and purposes, Ms. Anthins is just any other PRT soldier in a helmet. Mr. Pruce will develop on his own, as he did here, however I would like to ask anyone who reads this to help me figure out a name for him. There won't be any vote, I'll just go through to see if anyone has either commented or messaged me and chose one I like.**

 **On Rimuru. He is going to be different from the character he is based off, at least for the duration of this story. He is currently ten years old, and didn't get past the age of 15 before this happened. I do have ideas for sequels in mind, using Victory Conditions and then something from that setting to continue.**

 **As a final note, there will be plenty of things that aren't canon with the Web Serial. More specifically is my interpretation of several things, mostly dealing with what I've said about Brockton Bay and the PRT. My decision to have the PRT more individually competent, or at least seeming so, is due a lot to the narrator being first person and rather low-powered compared to most Capes we see. If he has Eye of the Mind Lv3, than that trooper had it as level 10. That is the sort of thing they need to survive. We don't see it work, in my interpretation of canon, because the enemies we see them go up against are very good themselves, and/or not allowed to lose. Rimuru was rather arrogant, and forgot that even if his opponent was weaker, their job was to fight people who would often be even stronger than he is. The thing about a power like the Gamer is that it takes time to set up. He's had it for about five days, of which he only spent about three hours fighting and training.**


	10. Of Ninja and Games

Of Ninja and Games

Getting thrown into another world is never fun, but at least I got some absolutely Broken powers out of it. Both "Ninja Magic" and the Gamer are ridiculously overpowered on their own, but with both of them and a base genetic affinity of zero for everything? The worlds won't know what hit them.

 **So, I've had yet** _ **another**_ **idea from the Worm CYOA, more specifically version 3. It's just so easy for me to come up with ideas, yet I can't seem to finish a single chapter of many of them. And worse, it keeps distracting me from my stories that I've already posted. As usual, on with the story!**

Chapter 1

I find myself waking to the sound of a ding, and a floating screen with words. Taking a minute to get my bearings and finish waking up, I looked around to try and see where I was, only to discover that I _couldn't_ see. Starting to panic, wondering what happened to me, I heard another ding from the screen, which I can still see while being blind, somehow. Calming down, I read what was on the screens.

 **[Welcome, Gamer, to your new World. You have been given new powers to go with your displacement. Given your choices, you now have "Ninja Magic" and, of course, the Gamer. Both of these are overpowered as anything, so good luck, and try not to die before you get started]**

 **[Warning! Dangerous levels of emotion detected! Emotions dialed down to acceptable levels]**

Oh. And I can't even panic over my new powers messing with my head, or that I'm blind in another world, likely Worm given the ninja magic bit. I did do a CYOA for a story with both powers. Feeling myself calm down, naturally and not just having my panic suppressed, I started to feel around where I was. As far as I can tell, I was dropped in an alleyway off of a road, with a backpack I could feel myself wearing, the exit found by falling out of the ally. I wasn't close enough to get ran over by a car, but I'm lucky I wasn't hit by anyone walking.

Standing up and turning to my right, I started walking that direction with my hand following the wall. Being blind and walking alongside a bad road in a bad area of the city, I kept tripping over random objects in my path. The final straw was when I stepped onto and tripped over a random bottle (I think) and fell flat on my face. Growling in frustration, I pushed all the Chakra I could in the direction of my face, in the area around my eyes, just wanting _to see!_ I was rather shocked when I could suddenly see everything around me, even if it wasn't really sight.

Checking my status page, and wondering how the Hell I activated the _Byakugan_ of all doujutsu, even if I couldn't see in color, as well as asking the power itself for an answer.

 **[You have an affinity of zero for** _ **everything**_ **ninja can do. Chakra takes some amount of influence from your thoughts, and you wanted to see more than anything else. There was also influence from the Archive, the Byakugan being a doujutsu that didn't exactly rely on sight to see. As different ocular based jutsu have costs to activating them, the Byakugan being relatively cheap in comparison to the others, starting with roughly ten meters of sight, it wouldn't kill you on activation. The Sharingan would have been near worthless as you cannot see, and the activation cost would have killed you]**

 **[Name: Theo Anders**  
 **Level 1**  
 **Title: Apprentice Gamer**

 **HP: 100**  
 **CP: 60/100**

 **Physical: 10**  
 **Mental: 10**  
 **Chakra: 10]**

 **[Skills:**

 **Gamers Body: Allows the body to be adaptable and attain growth. Allows instant healing from food and rest**

 **Gamers Mind: Allows visual interface with the Gamer. Dials down dangerous levels of emotion to reasonable**

 **Byakugan Lv1: Allows near-perfect sight within your range, with higher levels increasing it. Range is 10 meters, costs 10cp per/min]**

Continuing walking until I reached a street sign, I pulled out a map of the city to check where I was. Turing around, I started walking to the area where I knew I owned a warehouse, having pulled out the deed to the building along with the map.

XXXXX

Entering through the front of my warehouse, I waited for my Chakra to regenerate from my use of the Byakugan to see well enough to get here. After that was done, I got started on the Tree Walking exercise. Due to the Archive, I already knew how much Chakra to use to make it work. Walking a bit up the wall, not quite high enough to be injured if I fell, I started to do physical exercises while waiting for the skill to finish reaching its max level, as well as playing around with my Byakugan in the semi-safe area.

 **[Wall Walking skill learned**

 **Chakra Control skill learned**

 **Wall Walking has leveled up to 2**

 **Gentle Fist Taijutsu style learned**

 **Chakra Control has leveled up to 2**

 **Chakra has leveled up to 12**

 **Wall Walking has level up to 3**

 **Physical has leveled up to 11**

 **Gentle Fist style has leveled up to 2**

 **Byakugan has leveled up to 4**

 **You have leveled up to Lv2**

 **Wall Walking has leveled up to 4**

 **Chakra Control has leveled up to 3**

 **Wall Walking has leveled up to max]**

And with that, I've finished training for the moment. It took an hour, including breaks to restore my Chakra when it ran low. As it stands, I'm a bit stronger now. I pulled up my status again and had it only show what has changed.

 **[Level 2**

 **HP: 110**  
 **CP: 120**

 **Physical: 11**  
 **Mental: 10**  
 **Chakra: 12**  
 **Points: 2]**

 **[Skills:**

 **Byakugan Lv4: Allows near-perfect sight in your range, with higher levels increasing it. Range is 1 kilometer, costs 4cp per/min**

 **Chakra Control Lv3: Your skill in controlling how your Chakra moves and how much you put into your jutsu. Currently allows for a single hand seal to be dropped when preforming some jutsu, and eventually removes the need for hand seals entirely**  
 **-Wall Walking Max: Allows you to stick to walls and ceilings with your Chakra. Costs 5cp per 10 minutes, and is almost second nature**

 **Taijutsu: Hand to hand combat styles**  
 **-Gentle Fist Lv2: A precision-based style of fighting, designed around the Byakugan, using attacks infused with Chakra to control another person's Chakra flow and damage internal organs]**

I finished reading, finding it acceptable for an hour of training. Now I have the option of continuing training with the Gentle Fist, starting on nature transformations, going on with strait Chakra control, or starting on seals. Or some combination of several. I'll go with Chakra control until I can create shadow clones, mostly to work out the cost to effect ratio and not have it kill me, while working on the Gentle Fist as it's the sort of repetitive skill I can work on somewhat subconsciously. From there, I can have the clones work on Chakra control and nature transformations.

Starting on that plan, I focused Chakra into my muscles to get that skill, and went to continue working at that.

 **[Chakra Enhancement skill learned**

 **Chakra Enhancement has leveled up to 2**

 **Chakra Control has leveled up to 4**

 **Gentle Fist leveled up to 3**

 **Chakra Enhancement leveled up to 3**

 **Chakra Control leveled up to 5]**

Now I should be able to create at least one shadow clone and survive. Quickly doing just that, I watched a clone of myself form in a puff of smoke, taking 60cp along with it. As soon as that happened, I received a message from the Gamer.

 **[Shadow Clone skill learned]**

 **[For the sake of balance and the limitations of the Gamer system, only a single shadow clone can give experience for skills at a time, and only 25% of what it would have given you for the same effort. They can only train in skills you've already learned]**

Disappointing, but reasonable. I didn't really expect much more than that in the first place. To start with, I grabbed some paper, a brush, and some ink to draw some of the symbols used in the ninja's written language. That… didn't go so well, but it got me the Cartography skill, which I sent my clone to work on. I wasn't going to have anything, even a clone, experiment with seals, not with how poor my Cartography is right now. After sending it off, I personally did just the basics of the basics in transforming my Chakra in the basic natures. Having an affinity of zero and knowing how from the Archive, each of them were just as difficult as the others, which is to say, not much at all. It did net me another level in Chakra Control, which is nice.

The Chakra natures, in the Gamer system, counts by percentages instead of levels. In that case, I'll work on each of them up to 20%, then I'll see what I can do about looking for people who took care of… I'm going to go with 'me' to nip possible confusion in the bud, I'll go looking for them in the morning.

XXXXX

Finishing my training with elemental Chakra natures, I looked through one of the windows, I saw the sun just starting to rise. Quicker than I thought it'd be, but I can at least preform most low-ranked jutsu, like little camping tricks, with only a hand sign or two. Dispelling the clone, I braced myself for the memories. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would, but I still wouldn't want to dispel 10 or more without being asleep first. Reviewing the results of the training session, I have four levels in Cartography, am in the low 20%'s with all elemental Chakra natures, and reached level nine with Chakra and eight in Chakra Control.

Exiting the warehouse, I checked the map to see where to go to find the police station. I know who I am, but I have no memories of living in this body before gaining powers, and Kaiser, Max Anders, would have put up a missing person report at least for his son, if only to look like a decent person. Looking as far out as I can with my Byakugan, I put an illusion over my face to cover the bulging veins while dismissing the mostly atrophied Chakra networks of most people and somewhat working ones of Parahumans.

Finding no Parahumans, although there was a police station within my range, I started walking. It wasn't too far away, maybe ten minutes at most, and it's a police station so it should be open- actually, no. I have no interest in living in and around the neo-Nazi area, at least not unless it's to have easy access to socially acceptable targets, especially not with their leader. He may not be a neo-Nazi himself, but he still acts like one. I don't need to live with him, the Resources perk gives me houses, safe houses, and a secret base, to say nothing of the money it gives me.

Turning a different direction, I headed to the feudal-era Japanese styled house I know I have at the edge of the city. Heading in that direction, this time using the roof hooping and Chakra Enhancement to get there, I arrived quicker than most vehicles could have. Reaching the house and finding a blood seal that was locking it from the average city-goer exploring, I bit my finger and let the seal register the blood signature as mine before entering.

Heading towards a chest labeled as holding my combat gear that I couldn't see through, I opened it up and pulled out the items inside. Snorting at the clothing, sword, and shakujo I could now see, amused at the Resources perk putting in even more parallels with Hamura. I guess it themes around my apprentice and takes inspiration from the Case-53 disadvantage. I did have it set my appearance as a roughly age 15 Hamura, after all I didn't get any physical advantage from the appearance so it was an easy two points and an explanation on why I didn't have any memories of living on Earth-Bet.

Creating and sending off a clone with orders to continue practicing Cartography until dispelled or dispel itself after reaching max level with the skill, I put the clothes away and went to the bedroom to get some sleep.

XXXXX

Stretching as I woke up, I read the notifications the system showed to me. The complete regeneration through sleep was in full force here, and I did reach max level in Cartography over the course of the night. That meant I wasn't going to be making mistakes with creating the actual lines and kanji when I start making seals, but misremembering the placement of them could be just as disastrous during the creation process. And I'm not even going to try to create and use seals in battle until I'm at least two-thirds of the way through leveling the skill.

Still, I used some of the leftover Cartography materials to create the most basic seal I could to get that skill, an exploding tag. After that, I created another shadow clone with orders to alternate between practicing sealing and working on the Gentle Fist every half hour, and to dispel itself after three hours, if I didn't do it myself before then or give other orders

Putting on the combat gear in the chest, before using the Henge to look like an average person, I stepped out into the city. Currently it is about mid-afternoon, so I don't have to fake being an adult and could just wander around without hand-eye coordination issues. My current Chakra regeneration rate allowed me to sustain both the illusion and my Byakugan indefinitely, and if necessary, say in combat, I could shorten the range for the eyes to cut down the cost.

Thankfully, this city isn't bad to the point that there's a Cape fight every hour, just every couple of days, so I was able to get the groceries, put them away, and head back to the city without incident. In between the time of putting the groceries away and leaving the house again, the shadow clone was told to continue for another three hours with the same conditions. I dropped my transformation as I walked through an alleyway that had no one watching, electronically or otherwise, and started running over to where I could see a crime in progress. A simple mugging, sure, but even if I wasn't to be a Hero alongside the Protectorate, that didn't mean I had to let crimes I could see and stop succeed.

Falling down onto the pair of criminals, I struck a specific point on both of them with Chakra to a pressure point. Sure, it wouldn't last as long without a needle stuck in the spot, but they'll stay asleep for long enough for the police to pick them up. Turning to face the person I saved, I saw a normal woman with brown hair and eyes. Not recognizing her from any canon descriptions, and not really being someone who would stand out besides, I checked for injuries, because even if I already know there aren't any, I'll keep up the façade. Catching her flinch at my apparent blindness, I ignored her and checked on the other two for injuries as well, at least anything more than scrapes and bruises. Not finding anything on either of them, I took out my phone and called the police.

"Hello, this is a new Independent Cape, Hamura," both my perks, powers, and appearance seem to be following the theme anyway, "There are a couple of criminals that need picked up on an alleyway near the corner of Park and Main."

Taking out a couple of pieces of paper, I drew a seal for each of the unconscious criminals. Going slowly, so I didn't mess up and get us all blown up, I drew a seal array that put enough resistance in the muscles that trying to move would feel, to them but not the cops, like trying to lift a car with your bare hands, without Chakra or a Brute power. Handing over the muggers when the cops arrived, I exited up the wall, after explaining what the seal did at its most basic, not allowing them to move on their own power.

Running on top of roofs, I continued to stop more crimes in the same manner, heading to the crimes that are the most serious or the furthest along. There weren't actually as many as you would expect, given fanfiction, but there is a lot that can happen in a kilometer radius.

XXXXX

And now I go back to training. Thinking of the future, what I need to work on are very strong, multi-use abilities, specifically for use on the Endbringers and such. In this setting, they are the equivalent to the Tailed Beasts, sort of. That immediately brings to mind Fuinjutsu, the Wood Release of the Senju, and the Chakra Chains of the Uzumaki. Of the three, the last is most useful in my mind, being a form of Chakra Manifestation and Shape Manipulation, strong enough to hold down the Tailed Beasts. Wood Release can as well, but I think that was due to being able to calm the corrupted Chakra of the Biju, which might not work the same with the Endbringers.

And I have that clone working on Fuinjutsu anyways, so I'll still have the option to use it when the time comes. But Fuinjutsu takes time, and it can be very dangerous. Even if it takes longer, better to have the clone working with the deadly explosions, while I worked on the less dangerous and more immediately useful skill. And when the System finally gave the notification that I learned the skill? Well, I can't deny that my smile was more than a little unhinged.

 **XXXXX**

 **Okay, I should probably be working on that sequel story, but that is more of a collection of chronologically ordered short stories, going through many different settings, and so it will not really be finished for a long time. This story idea is a bit older than that one, but it took a while to write out in a way I'm happy with.**

 **As with most of these that I like to write, Scion is dead, although it was done differently than in my other story. Here, he met a Master that tried to help him with his depression, said the wrong things, and caused him to self-destruct. The city they were in at the time was destroyed, but it was mostly an empty relic after the aftershock of the sinking of part of Japan.**

 **As is normal, or going to be normal, with my Gamer stories, past the setup with it in this chapter, it will have much less of a presence in the story like here. Oh, there will be quite a bit of it, but directly stating what the screens say will be less of a thing further on. I don't like dealing with all those numbers. And I think that's about it. Goodby for now.**


	11. Framework

Framework

Jump-chan here! Sorry, but I will be the one giving the description for this story. So, James was accidentally thrown into a Chain. As recompense, since we both have to follow the rules, when he made one build, I allowed him a bit more leeway and another Capstone Perk from a different CYOA.

 **And, another one of these. This time, there is a bit on narrative leeway (Is that what it would be called? Something like that) around a couple of rules and limits. Nothing too bad, but noticeable. They are very much an OC, having different reasons for making the same choices I did on for the Chain, being a different person with a different mind than me. That said, let's get on with it.**

Chapter 1

I woke up to Fog. I could see through it, but I could sense that there was Fog all around me. It didn't leak out of the warehouse, and I know that my will alone is holding it in. If I wanted, that Fog could cover a city in minutes. Well, it looks like that dream-conversation with "Jump-chan" wasn't a dream after all. Okay, okay, everything will be fine. I'm just in Worm, that's all.

Okay, I'm calmer now. At least, calm enough to think about things mostly rationally. The first thing to do, get protection. Simple enough, my power has all this Fog to use. All of the Fog in the warehouse was then funneled into a suit of bioarmor, taking inspiration from the Vojnik skin of the Frost Warframe. I spent the next hour working on it, recreating the Frame faithfully, knowing that my power creates stronger creatures the more time I spend making them. I won't make it as slow, though.

By the end of that hour, I had finally finished making the armor. As a suit of armor, it isn't bad, but it isn't particularly good either. It is in the supernatural powers that it really shows its worth. It has a permanent forcefield that qualifies for a mid-tier Brute power, but in a different way than most. The forcefield attempts to mitigate damage from any attacks, until the attack is completely nullified.

There is also a high/mid-tier Shaker power, one that allows for creation and control over cold, frost, and ice. This power can act as in offensive, defensive, and support roles as required, while also being less instantly lethal as fire. And then there's the third power, which allows the suit to grow along with me, even when the effects of Lessons of Adversity activate.

For now, any creature I create can have three or four powers at most. Either two major powers, three mid-tier powers, or four minor powers. Those values can be mixed somewhat, such as one major and one mid-tier, or one major and two minor powers. Any number of powers less than that is viable as well.

Now, the next thing to do is to create a body for the Richter A.I. I bought as a companion. I seem to have started a theme of making bioarmor with my power, so why not continue? I don't remember very many Warframes, and besides that, I don't want to create more than the basics of a body for them without their input.

Making what turned out to be basically the silhouette of a genderless body took about ten minutes, mostly just so I could create the minor power of channeling the A.I. and not mess up. With that done, I took out the data bank from my warehouse and allowed them to connect to the suit.

Waiting a moment for them to get their bearings, I then started to speak. "Hello, my name is James Greenwood, or Framework in this suit. Do you know what's going on?"

The frame gave the impression of looking at me for a moment, before answering in a soft, feminine voice, "Yes, master. Jump-chan explained the basics to me while you were making your suit, and later mine. You are from another version of Earth, one without superpowers, where the multiverse is just a theory. You were accidentally sent on a multiversal journey, each stop lasting ten years, unless some choice changes that."

I ignored the master bit for the sake of my sanity. "Good! Now for a more important question, what is your name? Cape or civilian, whichever you prefer, if you don't mind."

Even without a face, or much in the way of body language, they gave of the impression of amusement. "More important? What odd priorities you have."

I gave a sort of embarrassed shrug, "I have ten years to explain everything to you, and I have no intention of hiding much from you. However, I would like to know how I should refer to you, seeing as we are going to be working together for at least the next ten years. You also know more of this world than I do, or can at least find out more, and faster. The setting of the next world isn't very important here and now."

Still amused, but understanding now, she answered me, "I would like to be called Ouroboros, as a Cape name, the snake to Dragons, well, dragon."

"Ouroboros hasn't been taken yet? Surprising, but I guess there is also the chance that someone who used to use the name died recently," I muttered to myself. A couple designs flitted through my mind, before I choose a particular Warframe to alter. "Okay then, I have an idea on what your suit should look like. If you don't like it, we can always redesign it once I'm done. And then for the powers built into it.

"Hmm, as a basic explanation, after I spend sufficient time creating the body, you can have four 'slots' for power. Minor powers count for one slot each, major powers as two, and the mid-tier powers are a bit weird, something like 1.2 for a slot.

"If those slots are arranged in a square with a box around them, it would be a bit like three mid-tier powers would almost push the empty 'slot' out of the box. A sufficiently small minor power could push back without being pushed out, but a mid-tier power in that slot would not fit.

"There are exceptions, and the values don't always work like that, but that's a good rule of thumb. Does that make sense?"

"I understand," was her answer.

"Okay, the ability for the suit to hold your consciousness and move as you want it to is one minor power. And then I have three mid-tier power ideas.

"The first is control over friction around your, even reversing the effect, so long as your body can handle it. The second is to heal from all damage dealt to the body, by pulling an Orochimaru and shedding your skin. That power can only be used once every twelve hours, however, in order to keep with the slot. The last is a power that allows the body to grow stronger, even its powers, through combat and training."

"And that takes you all of an hour to create a creature, suit or not, with powers stronger than 70% of the Parahumans in the world. Ones that can grow even stronger over time," she deadpanned. "That is not something you want getting out to the rest of the world."

"I know. It's kind of the point of the Jumpchain, but it can be very dangerous starting out. Anyway, let's start on actually finishing your body." Saying so, I let go of my thoughts and worries, focusing solely on designing and crafting the body of my companion.

XXXXX

Over the next hour, I worked on her biosuit. In the end, what I made was based off Ember Prime, and then altered to fit her tastes. The major differences being the gold ridges over her face were smoothed down and back over her head, and the exposed mechanical bits from Ember were changed to patches of gold and black snake scales.

"There we go, this good enough for you, your highness?" I teased her. She was a bit demanding over the pattern of the scales during creation, after all. Understandable, though, it is her main body for the foreseeable future.

She made a show of looking herself over, giving a sniff, and speaking primly, "It will have to do." Neither of us could keep a straight face for more than five seconds, and we fell down laughing.

Once we had both recovered, I made a connection in my head, and fell down laughing again. Looking over to Ouroboros, I asked her, in a voice filled with mirth, "What do you think about Lilith for your civilian name?"

She gave me the impression of narrowed eyes – really, how does she do that without having eyes to narrow? – and asked her own question, "This is about what made you laugh. What are you thinking about?"

Regaining control over myself, I pushed myself off the floor and spoke. "In my world, there was an anime series. It boiled down to a lighthearted, action/comedy, hentai/harem thing. It took place at around this time period, in a version of Earth where every mythology exists, superpowers are hidden, and where there are no Endbringers, somewhere in Japan. One of the two strongest existences in that world was called Ophis, the Infinity Dragon, and the Ouroboros Dragon. Lilith was a sort-of clone that was also its own person. You and your... sister? Make up two halves of that last title, and I made the connection. While you don't act like her, you showing your emotions, I thought it fit rather well."

She seemed to give it a moment's thought, likely for my benefit since she can think faster than I can, before answering. "Sure!" She chirped, "I'll take it. My civilian name is now Lilith Richter. Thank you, master."

I tried to emulate her, give off the impression of a smile without a face to use. I don't know if I managed it, but she understood anyway. "Let's go to my Lair. Much more comfortable than this old warehouse." she nodded, and we were off.

XXXXX

Entering the room first, I turned around and swept my arms to the sides. "Here we are, home sweet home. Or at least, it can be. Not much here yet, but there are rooms, and we have a workshop if you want to use it. Look around, make yourself at home. This is your home as much as it is mine."

While she was looking around, I pulled out a bed from one of the rooms into what appeared to be the living room. I want to her a body for her civilian identity as well. No need for her to be stuck in the combat suit all the time. I may be a Case 53, and thus not look normal, but she should be able to enjoy having a civilian life.

When Lilith had stopped exploring and had rejoined me in the living room, I called her over to help. This is going to be her body, one that she will be living in, at least until she wants it replaced, if that ever happens.

"We're going to be making you a civilian body, if you want one." I looked over to her, waiting for her response.

She gave another one of her felt-but-not-seen smiles, "Yes, thank you, master."

I looked back to the bed, pooling some Fog over it. "In my world, in that anime, Ophis was shown as one of two female forms. Both were slightly elfin in appearance, but while one looked like a young girl, the other was an adult woman. We can either base it off one of them, find a different template, or start from scratch. It is your body, so it is up to you to decide." After the excess Fog had disappeared, all that was left was two shells in the shape of people. Despite my embarrassment over it, I had created both exactly as they were shown.

Feeling my companion giving me a Look, I was quick to look away and speak up for myself. "D-don't blame me! That's what they wore on the show!" Indeed, I had recreated them perfectly... all the way down to the black tape in the shape of X's. I added more Fog, closing up the front of their clothes.

I tuned back, watching Lilith walk around, poke, and prod the two Ophis. She decided on the adult version, telling me she didn't want to be seen as a child. After that, we started to go through styles for her hair and eyes. I had gotten out of my suit while crafting her body, to better use my Fog. Her hair was kept black, but shortened to neck length. The eyes were changed to a brilliant shade of emerald green, while their shape was made bit softer.

Her ears kept their slight points, and her clothes were changed to something like a black sundress. It might be a bit chilly until she gets used to the weather around here, but there are people running around in spandex all the time. It never really gets too cold.

On the powers side of things, there isn't much to say. There is the power allowing her to connect to the body, another that allows her to control certain bodily processes and round out her ears in order to hide them, if she wants to. The last is passive, a sort of calming field centered around her, to make it so people are less likely to try and take advantage of her. She is a beautiful woman, and I don't want people trying to mug her or worse.

Lilith took control over her new body, sitting up and then standing. She then started testing out her limbs, moving one, then another, then multiple at once. After that she was testing her balance, because this body is quite different from her combat suit. After she finished, she turned towards me, her face stoic but her eyes telling me everything.

Her voice was quiet, but filled with emotion. "Thank you, master."

' _Don't ask, don't ask, don't ask' "_ Why do you call me master?" I asked. ' _Damn it.'_

She looked at me, her body language telling of the sincerity and seriousness that her face didn't know how to express. "You used your CP to by the A.I. companion option. Those same points that you could have used elsewhere to increase your chances of survival. And you spent it to buy me. You even chose a Drawback, sacrificing your chance to have an identity, in order to buy me, when you could have chosen the Cape option instead."

I looked at the floor, embarrassed. "It wasn't that big of a sacrifice." I told her

She saw through me, and continued on. "You know that isn't true. You know that Case 53s are called Monster Capes. You know the problems not having an identity will bring. And you choose ME anyway. Jump-chan explained a lot more to me than you think. You read through the options. You wanted someone you Knew would be compatible with you, not just a follower or yes-man, someone who would stand beside you, rather than in your shadow. And your choice created me. I owe you everything, and THAT is why I call you master."

I gave her a gentle smile, walking over and gave her a hug. I whispered in her ear, "You owe me nothing. You are my companion, and my friend. I will work by your side as long as you will have me, and if you will, we will be working to save the lives of others, and we will save each other. You don't need to call me master if you don't want to, but if that is what you want than I shall not argue."

I fell silent, giving comfort to the woman that knows she was created today, yet had memories saying otherwise. One that I know read that tablet, knows of the atrocities that could have happened to her world, that might still happen.

The suits, whom I made to be protective rather than predatorial when not being used as bioarmor, personalities closer to dogs than wolves, also joined in on the hug. And that was the way we ended the day, sitting on a bed, giving comfort to one of our own.

 **XXXXX**

 **And that's the end of this chapter. A rather nice spot to end it, don't you agree? I left a few hints for something I plan to make happen some way down the line, I wonder if any of you will notice. This is very much a set up chapter, with a bit more set up that happened off screen.**

 **So, we see James' power. Yeah, it is a bit overpowered, but then again, many of the powers on the Jump doc are. Most of the limits to his power is his own imagination, but there are a couple of hard limits present, as is shown above. Another limit that hasn't been stated is the amount of Fog he can create in a day, which is roughly enough to fill the entire city twice over. His range before the Fog starts to disappear out of his control is a little less, but still massive. Also, after an hour of work on any one creature, that is where the point of diminishing returns starts to accelerate.**

 **Now onto Lilith. She has a power of her own, technically given to her by Jump-chan, who will not be mentioned much past this chapter, but she did go through enough trauma to Trigger as a Parahuman naturally, due to existential crisis, as can be seen referred to above. Her power is the Reverse Engineer Tinker from the Jump doc. That power was the most versatile of the Tinker powers, and certainly the strongest. Perhaps not right out of the gate, but the more technology she looks at, the stronger she gets.**

 **The biosuits are exactly what they sound like, and the only reason why the power allowing them to grow isn't a major slot power is because it is based off a Perk of his, and is quite slow. Lilith's body is a bit different, being fully functional as a human body in every way I can think of. Unlike the biosuits, it needs food and water, instead of living off Fog, produces waste, etc.**

 **Okay, that's about all I can think to say, see you next chapter. Maybe.**


	12. Speed Kills

Speed Kills

Jump-chan here! Sorry, but I will be the one giving the description for this story. So, James was accidentally thrown into a Chain. As recompense, since we both have to follow the rules, when he made his build, I allowed him a bit more leeway and another Capstone Perk from a different CYOA.

 **And, another one of these. This time, there is a bit on narrative leeway around a couple of rules and limits. Nothing too bad, but noticeable. Also, while technically an SI, the additional memories make them different from me, so it is more like an OCI. That said, let's get on with it.**

Chapter 1

I woke up to a gun pressed to the back of my head, and the odd feeling of memories slotting themselves into my head without pain. On a screen in front of me, positioned to be just where I could see it, I saw my new –they've always been- family. Behind them, there were more gang members with guns. The threat was obvious. But why would- oh. There was the attack, a conflict between the E88 and ABB, and this body was shoved into a cupboard. My memories say that I just wanted to get away, and then I Triggered.

I was confused after waking up, I ran around, nocking into gang members on both sides with super speed, my power activating in fits and starts, before finally falling to the ground and hitting my head. And that leads to now.

"Awake? Good. Here's how things are going to work. You attack me, your family dies. They attack their guards, they die. You will be working for the Empire. Working against us will lead to your family's death. Your name will be Zoran, and an outfit will be provided in a couple of days. While you wait, you are to learn the rules. You will get one video-call a week to check on your family. Am I clear?" I said nothing, but he seemed to take that as a positive response. He walked out, and the screen turned off.

I just sat there, contemplating my bad decision making. This is not what I thought was going to happen when I choose Gang Pressed. Almost two months. Then the Protectorate should be falling over themselves trying to help me.

XXXXX

The next couple of days were both incredibly boring, and incredibly frustrating. I had finished the rulebook I was given within a minute, my power lending itself well to reading far faster than the average human can. Simultaneously reducing the possible burning paper due to friction bit, and making myself turn the pages at super speeds while my reflexes are increased in order to act normally at those speeds does not lend itself well towards keeping someone's attention.

I also know I am being watched. I know why, they are being smart about the Parahuman whose sole attachment to the group is the threats made on his family, but I don't like it anyway. My needs are taken care of, but I have nothing to do, and I think that is making them somewhat nervous.

Reading the book another time won't help me, I can almost recite it in my sleep by this point. What would help is actually getting to do anything. I've even gone so far as learning how to float with my power.

The way that works is a bit odd, but it makes sense when you think about it. My power allows me to redirect and reverse the effects of friction and momentum, as applied to me and whatever I'm touching, with no hard, upper limit. I can make that momentum just enough to lift me off the floor and keep me there, and then increase or decrease my momentum enough to rise or fall.

But once I'm in the air, I can't change my direction. This is due to the same reason that anyone else in most worlds, without a dedicated power, can't change their direction either. I don't have anything to push against to redirect that momentum, and my power means I don't meet enough air resistance that I could have used to do so.

So, I can fly in any direction I want, and then either fall or rise even higher. But once I change my direction to directly up or down, I can't change it again without falling back to the ground. It does mean that I can walk on the ceilings and walls of buildings, for the same reasons.

While I was messing around with that, my door opened. Looking at the person who entered my room, I saw Cricket. After a moment, I started lowering myself gently back onto my bed. Taking out a whiteboard, since apparently, they believe my power somehow made me unable to speak, I wrote out a note. Either that, or they're just using it to fit their image of my Cape identity somehow.

The note read, ' _Floating, not true flight._ _'_ I don't want them to overestimate what I can do, that might get me killed, but nor do I want them to know exactly how my power works. She didn't do anything other than throw the package in her hands onto my bed, then she left. In the package is apparently my costume, the one bought from the Jump doc Item section.

Its base is a darker grey than my hair, which in color is a match for Kakashi's. The suit somewhat baggy, yet tight enough that it is unlikely to catch on things while I run around. As a design, it has blue and green lightning bolts, with the green ones matching up to my C53 tattoos. It also has a hood, as something to protect my head, and a visor to obscure my eyes and catch a bit of attention that would otherwise be focused on the rest of my face.

There was also a manual about its capabilities and the way to repair it or make more, as the Jump doc said. In world reasoning? My guess is that they don't want to waste time other people could be using to be doing other things when I have the speed to do it myself, and when I would need to repair it I wouldn't be able to do anything for fear of letting the world know my identity.

I then finished the manual. And then I read it again. And again, fifty times over because it is something somewhat new to do, and this is a very good costume that I want to keep in good repair. There was another note in with the package, and although I wasn't reading it many times over, I was very happy for what it said.

The message boiled down to the 'boss' noticing my boredom, taking it as the need/enjoyment of conflict most Capes have, and saying he understands the violent needs of lesser people, that he is allowing me to fight in the cage matches that some members of the E88 host so long as I don't let on about my power. All of it was written much more subtle, of course, but that's the gist of it.

Fighting isn't my favorite thing to do, but at this point I'll take it. And I do have the first drawback level of A Bad Influence, so he Isn't wrong. I also took the Lessons of Adversity perk, allowing me to forever grow from combat. Limiting myself to not use my power with make that perk work even better.

But I have to wait a few hours longer, since it is still light out, and those fights aren't technically legal. But that's fine, I've waited days by now for something to do, I can wait a few hours more.

XXXXX

Arriving at the building, which doesn't look any different from the ones around it although I guess that's the point, I knocked in a certain pattern. Any other pattern would have either had a bunch of gang members out and ready to fight, or just the greeter letting in the person as a normal house guest. Guess there's a reason he said that it was some of the member **hosting** these cage matches.

Going down the stairs to the basement, which had been excavated for the purposes of something else, maybe a wine cellar? I don't know, but I do know that there are several, and they are all used for whatever purpose they were constructed for when not being used for illegal activities. Makes it a bit harder to lock people up if all evidence of fighting can be hid with two minutes of moving things around.

Anyway, back on track. Down the stairs, there was a bit of a crowd already. Two people were in the ring, and both looked about evenly matched. And then one of them decided he had the other trapped with no way to escape, and tried to strike with everything he had. That didn't go so well for him, and when his opponent dodged, he couldn't recover in time to block. And thus, his opponent took the win. However, both of them were quite exhausted by the end of it, and so it looks like he's going to sit out for now.

Taking my chance, I went up to fight next. The person who seemed to be in charge looked around, found someone who, if I had to guess, would be roughly my equal, and told me the rules.

"New kid! You'll be fighting him. Rules are: no killing, no weapons, no trying to attack the watchers, and the fight will only last 15 minutes, if one of you are thrown out of the ring, or can no longer fight. No one wants to watch two kids beating each other to a pulp for an hour. Start!"

As soon as he said that, my opponent jumped at me. I was ready for that, however, and redirected his strike. He seemed to know how to fight to some extent, because he pulled away quickly and kept me from taking advantage.

I was the next to strike, although my opponent blocked my attack. He was quick to counter, and while I couldn't dodge, I could and did move to let him catch me somewhere less damaging. This back and forth went on for a while, until I managed to knock him out of the ring. Then the next person came forward to fight, a little better at it than my first opponent, although I still managed to pull out a win.

On my third fight, I lost. Nothing special about it, I had several minor injuries from my previous fights which didn't help, even if I have pretty much infinite stamina. I didn't leave just yet, watching a couple more fights. Soon enough, however, I collected my money and left for the meetup point.

XXXXX

That continued on for the next week, making me stronger as I fought. Nothing special, not in this world, but I did at least gain something like a Brute rating of one or two. Nothing extraordinary, but still nothing to scoff at when my power let me keep all the momentum I can safely handle when hitting something with my super speed.

After the week ended, it appeared that the boss caught on to my growth. He had, apparently, been observing me through cameras, or left a lower member to do it, and connected how much stronger I got to how hard I was challenged. Fucking gang leaders with _intelligence._ So now, all of his Capes are allowed to fight me to the best of their abilities, so long as they don't kill me or somehow permanently maim me in a way that Othala can't heal.

So, yay, my strength and endurance and whatever is going to skyrocket, but boo, because the gang know even more about my powers. Nothing has happened yet, but it will soon, I can feel it. And I fully expect Hookwolf to be the one to take up that offer more often than not, so long as his other duties don't stand in the way. Which could really hurt.

But that doesn't matter right now. What does is the bullets flying past my face. The police had found out about some building being used by the E88 for something I didn't care enough to remember, and then the E88 had found out about plans for the attack, and I was sent to take care of it as a kind of debut.

So, while the cops were shooting at the building, I sped around, just a blur to everyone else. The fact that I am going fast enough to be nothing but a blur to the naked eye is an indication that I am holding back. The power based off the Hero Battery isn't a Mover power, and its description had you going too fast to be tracked by electronics. I can go even faster that.

Regardless of how fast I can go, right now I am going more than fast enough for my reflexes to be up to dodging bullets. Right then, I decided to end this 'fight'. All that could be seen to anyone else was a blur of grey cloth, green lightning, and the shimmer of metal, before the crack of bones being broken rang out, close enough together to almost sound like a single drawn out note, and the police were all lying gently on the ground.

All the shooting from both sides stopped almost instantly, and I slowed down to almost normal. Looking over to the gang members that seemed to want to just kill the cops, of which there were more than a few, I waved them off. There is a bit more work to be done, and I still have to take these cops to the hospital.

Should anyone ask, I do have reasons for doing so beyond just not wanting to kill people and take away the families of other people. That is my main reason, but if they press, I have others I can tell them that they should accept.

Going back and forth with the bodies of the disabled police officers in hand took a couple of minutes, even with how fast I was moving, but I got it done. And after that, I'm just done with today. Sighing, I went to help with moving whatever's in this building somewhere else.

XXXXX

"Why did you just hand the police over to the hospital, knowing they would just be healed by Panacea the next day?" One of the Empire members, who I don't recognize, asked. There was curiosity in their tone, and a hint of rebuke.

' _Do you want the personal reasons, ethical reasons, or the pragmatic reason?_ _'_ I wrote back.

An eyebrow raised, and most of the rebuke was gone from their next statement. "Give me all three."

I followed my orders, although I had to continually erase and write something else down due to the size of my board. ' _Personal is I didn't want to kill them, nor make someone else lose a family member.'_ Obvious hint is obvious. _'Ethical only adds that people shouldn't kill, which I don't care about in some circumstances. Pragmatic is I can get to anywhere in the city in order to stop attacks on the Empire's assets, whereas the Merchants and ABB cannot. Nothing lost save perhaps a bit more people that they can use to try and attack us with, which won't help when I tear through them like wet paper._ _'_

"And if they call in the Protectorate or get some kind of Tinkertech?"

I looked at him, deadpan expression going mostly unnoticed due to my costume. ' _The first isn't going to happen, not when they obsess over keeping the status quo. As for the second... aside from the question of where they might get the money to buy something like that, they still have to hit me in order for it to be of any use. I can be just as fast as Velocity, and I still have an effect on the world around me at those speeds. I can hit them before they manage to use their Tinkertech, should they ever get any._ _'_

"Fine, you're off the hook." As he walked away, he mumbled, "Some of the other members might want to think things through like that. We'd have total control if even half the people who join up have even half as much sense."

Hearing what he said, I snorted to myself and thought, ' _Of course no one who joins has any common sense. That is part and parcel of being a Nazi, modern or old.'_

 **XXXXX**

 **And that's where I'll end this. Both of the latest two stories are basically variations of each other, and I mostly copied and pasted the description and beginning note for each. Note that there should be similarities in their characterization, though I don't know how well I did with that. The plot of both should start out roughly the same, but that will quickly be done away with soon enough.**

 **Also, take note that, while the description of this character's power is similar to the one Framework gave to Lilith's combat suit, there are major differences between the two. Zoran's is much more powerful, and it also affects his momentum rather than just friction. There is also no limit to the speed he can go, just that the forces involved are reduced to safe levels for him where he acts on the world. Lilith will be unable to do that floating trick, no matter how hard she tries, because her power was built for and now locked into only affecting her friction, for example.**

 **Framework has the edge in versatility, Zoran in the sheer strength of his power. Both will be capable of amazing feats, but the way they would accomplish those are different. Zoran rushes in and attacks head on, Framework thinks around it and creates some monster capable of countering the problem.**

 **And that's it for now, I'll see you in the next chapter of whichever story I manage to update next.**


End file.
